Part 31 (1/2)
The three great towers Phasaelus, Hippicus, and Mariamne--desperately defended by Simon's soldiers--formed an impregnable obstacle on the one side; while Antonia, and the steep ascent up to the Temple platform, was defended with equal stubbornness, and success, by the soldiers of John of Gischala.
t.i.tus therefore prepared for the a.s.sault of the second wall. The point selected for the attack was the middle tower on the northern face, close to which were the wool mart, the clothes mart, and the braziers' shops.
There were no natural obstacles to the approach, and the battering ram was soon placed in position, while a strong body of archers prevented the defenders showing themselves above the parapet. The wall was of far less strength than that which the Romans had before encountered, and soon began to totter before the blows of the battering ram. The Jews, indeed, were indifferent as to its fall; for they knew that the possession of the inner town was of slight importance to them, and that its fall would not greatly facilitate the attack upon what was the natural line of defense--namely, the heights of Zion and Moriah.
For a short time, the Roman advance was delayed by the proceedings of Castor, the Jewish officer commanding the tower which they had a.s.saulted. He, with ten men, alone had remained there when the rest of the defenders had retired; and he got up a sham battle among his men--the Romans suspending operations, under the belief that a party of the defenders were anxious to surrender. Castor himself stood on the parapet, and offered t.i.tus to surrender. t.i.tus promised him his life and, when an archer standing near sent an arrow which pierced Castor's nose, he sternly rebuked him.
He then asked Josephus, who was standing beside him, to go forward and a.s.sure Castor and his companions that their lives should be spared. Josephus, however, knew the way of his countrymen too well, and declined to endanger his life. But, upon Castor offering to throw down a bag of gold, a man ran forward to receive it, when Castor hurled a great stone down at him; and t.i.tus, seeing that he was being fooled, ordered the battering ram to recommence its work.
Just before the tower fell, Castor set fire to it; and leaped with his companions--as the Romans supposed into the flames--but really into a vault, whence they made their escape into the city.
As soon as the tower fell, t.i.tus entered the breach, with his bodyguard and a thousand heavy-armed troops. The inhabitants, almost entirely of the poorer cla.s.s, surrendered willingly; and t.i.tus gave orders that none, save those found with arms upon them, should be killed. The Romans dispersed through the narrow and winding streets when, suddenly, Simon and his men poured down from the upper city; and John, at the head of his band, issued from his quarters.
While some fell upon the Romans in the streets, others entered the houses and rained missiles upon them from above; while another party, issuing from the gate by Phasaelus, attacked the Romans between the second and third walls, and drove them into their camp.
For a time, t.i.tus and those in the lower town suffered terribly; but at last t.i.tus posted archers, to command the lanes leading towards the breach, and managed--but with considerable loss--to withdraw his troops through it.
The Jews at once manned the wall, and formed in close order behind the breach. t.i.tus led his heavy-armed troops against it, but John and Simon defended it with the greatest valor and, for three days and nights, beat back the continued attacks of the Roman soldiers; but at the end of that time they were utterly exhausted, while the Romans incessantly brought up fresh troops. Even Simon--who had fought desperately at the head of his men, and had performed prodigies of valor--could no longer continue the struggle and, slowly and in good order, the defenders of the breach fell back to the upper city, and the lower town remained in the possession of the Romans.
In order to avoid a recurrence of the disaster which had befallen them, t.i.tus ordered a considerable portion of the second wall to be leveled; so that the troops could, if necessary, pour in or out without difficulty. But Simon had no thought of repeating his sortie. A large number of his best men had already fallen, and he determined to reserve his force for the defense of the almost impregnable position of the upper city.
Two hundred of John's band had fallen round the breach, he himself had received several wounds, and the fighting strength of his band was now but one-half of what it was at the commencement of the siege. He had, before the Romans first entered the inner town, had the remainder of his store of grain removed to the building in the upper town which Simon had a.s.signed to his band. It had as yet been but little trenched upon, as Simon had ordered that rations, similar to those issued to his own men, from the few granaries which had escaped destruction, should be given to John's band.
”What do you think, now, of the prospect?” Simon asked, as John and he stood together on the Tower of Phasaelus, on the day after the Romans had taken possession of the lower town.
”I think, as I did at first,” John said, ”that nothing but a miracle can save the Temple.”
”But the difficulties that the Romans have overcome,” Simon said, ”are as nothing to those still before them.”
”That is quite true,” John agreed, ”and, had we but a good supply of food, I believe that we might hold out for months; but the grain is already nearly exhausted, and cannot support even the fighting men much longer, while the inhabitants are dying from hunger. Well and strong, we might resist every attack that the Romans can make but, when we can no longer lift our swords, they must overcome us.
Still, as long as I can fight I am ready to do so, in hopes that G.o.d may yet have mercy upon us, and deliver his Temple.”
Chapter 16: The Subterranean Pa.s.sage.
For a few days after the capture of the lower city, the Jews had a respite. t.i.tus knew that famine was sapping the strength of the defenders, and that every day weakened their power of resistance.
He saw that the a.s.sault upon their strong position would be attended with immense difficulty, and loss, and he was desirous of saving the city from destruction. He ordered, therefore, a grand review of the troops to take place; and for four days the great army at his command--the splendid cavalry, the solid ma.s.ses of the Roman infantry, and the light-armed troops and cavalry of the allies, defiled before him. The Jews from the height of the city watched, with a feeling of dull despair, the tremendous power a.s.sembled against them; and felt the hopelessness of further resistance.
An intense desire for peace reigned, throughout the mult.i.tude, but John of Gischala and Simon had no thought of yielding. They believed that, whatever mercy t.i.tus might be ready to grant to the inhabitants of the town, for them and their followers there was no hope, whatever, of pardon; and they were firmly resolved to resist until the last. t.i.tus, finding that no offers of submission came from the city, sent Josephus to parley with the defenders.
He could not have made a worse choice of an amba.s.sador. Divided as the Jews were, among themselves, they were united in a common hatred for the man whom they regarded as a traitor to his country; and the harangue of Josephus, to the effect that resistance was unavailing, and that they should submit themselves to the mercy of t.i.tus, was drowned by the execrations from the walls. In fact, in no case could his words have reached any large number of the inhabitants; for he had cautiously placed himself out of bow shot of the walls, and his words could scarcely have reached those for whom they had been intended, even if silence had been observed. His mission, therefore, was altogether unavailing.
Ill.u.s.tration: Misery in Jerusalem During the Siege by t.i.tus.
John felt his own resolution terribly shaken, by the sights which he beheld in the city. The inhabitants moved about like specters, or fell and died in the streets. He felt, now, that resistance had been a mistake; and that it would have been far better to have thrown open the gates, when t.i.tus appeared before them--in which case the great proportion, at least, of those within would have been spared, and the Temple and the city itself would have escaped destruction. He even regretted that he had marched down to take part in the defense Had he known how entirely exhausted were the granaries, he would not have done so. He had thought that, at least, there would have been sufficient provisions for a siege of some months, and that the patience of the Romans might have been worn out.
He felt, now, that the sacrifice had been a useless one; but although he, himself, would now have raised his voice in favor of surrender, he was powerless. Even his own men would not have listened to his voice. Originally the most fervent and ardent spirits of his band, they were now inspired by a feeling of desperate enthusiasm, equal to that which animated Simon and John of Gischala; and his authority would have been at once overthrown, had he ventured to raise his voice in favor of surrender.
Already, he had once been made to feel that there were points as to which his influence failed to have any effect, whatever. He had, the morning after they retired to the upper city, spoken to his men on the subject of their store of grain. He had urged on them the horrors which were taking place before their eyes--that women and children were expiring in thousands, and that the inhabitants were suffering the extreme agonies of starvation--and had concluded by proposing that their store should be distributed among the starving women. His words had been received in silence, and then one of the captains of the companies had risen.
”What you say, John, of the sufferings which the people are undergoing is felt by us all; but I, for one, cannot agree to the proposal that we should give up our store of food. Owing to the number of us that have fallen, there are still well-nigh fifty pounds a man left, which will keep us in health and strength for another two months. Were we to give it out, it would not suffice for a single meal, for a quarter of the people a.s.sembled here, and would delay their death but a few hours; thus it would profit them nothing, while it will enable us to maintain our strength--and maybe, at a critical moment, to hurl back the Romans from the very gates of the Temple.