for they could not clearly distinguish objects on account of a thick fog which then prevailed and continued till the whole Roman army had gained admittance to the city. The recollection of their sufferings in the siege suppressed every sentiment of humanity and compassion in the breasts of the conquerors, who threw many of the Jews from the top of the fort; others, who had courage and inclination to offer resistance, were either pressed to death by the immense crowds of the enemy, or forced down precipices and killed by the ruins which fell from above. Many of Josephus' particular friends, being unwilling that the Romans should acquire the reputation of taking away their lives, retired to a remote part of the city, where they died by the hands of each

other.

Such of the guards as first observed the city to be taken fled to a turret towards the north, where they were attacked by the enemy, against whom they for some time made a good defence; but being oppressed by numbers, they offered to capitulate their proposals, however, were rejected, and they died with great resolution. The Romans might have valued themselves on gaining the victory without the loss of blood on their side, had it not been for the fate of Antony, a centurion, who was treacherously murdered in the following manner a number of Jews having fled for refuge to the caves, one of them called to Antony for quarter; the centurion immediately stretched forth his right hand, thereby indicating his compliance, when the Jew basely stabbed him in the groin with a dagger, and caused his death.

Every Jew who was met by the Romans on that day was put to instant death; and, during some following days, they carefully searched the subterraneous and other secret places for the survivors, all of whom, excepting women and children, they destroyed. The whole number of Jews slain amounted to forty thousand, and the prisoners were twelve hundred. In obedience to the orders of Vespasian, the castles were burnt, and the city was intirely laid in ruin. The Romans became masters of Jotapata on the first day of the month Panemus, in the thirteenth year of the reigu of Nero.

On the third day after the termination of the siege, Josephus was discovered to have concealed himself in a large cave along with forty other distinguished Jews. He was at length prevailed upon to surrender himself to Vespasian, whose accession to the empire he pretends to have predicted, and by whom he appears to have been treated with the greatest respect.

While the main army was occupied in the siege of Jotapata, a detachment was sent under the command of Trajan to attack Japhtha, a very strong city of Galilee. This was taken with great ease, and fifteen thousand of the Jews perished on the occasion. About the same time, a large number of the Samaritans collected upon mount Gerezim, where they meditated a rebellion. The Romans first surrounded them with a trench, and then offered them mercy, on their refusal of which they were, put to the sword, to the amount of eleven thousand six hundred men. Soon after these events, Vespasian proceeded to Cæsarea, the most considerable city of Judea, where he intended to remain during the winter.

A great concourse of people, composed of revolters from the Romans and fugitives from the conquered cities of the Jews, had now assembled, and were employed in rebuilding Joppa, which had been destroyed by Cestius. The banditti, being unable to procure the means of subsistence on account of the desolate state in which Cestius had left the country, constructed a number of vessels for the purpose of perpetrating robberies on the sea; and, by their piratical practices, they proved a great obstruction to commerce on the Syrian, Phoenician, and Egyptian coasts. Vespasian, being ap prised of their proceedings, dispatched a body of cavalry and infantry to Joppa; and

the troops found but little difficulty in gaining admittance by night to the eity, it being but indifferently watched and guarded. The inhabitants were so greatly astonished by being thus surprized, that they had not power to attempt the least resistance, but fled with great precipitation to their vessels, and remained that night at sea beyond the reach of the enemy's weapons.

Though Joppa is a sea-coast town, it has no port: the shore is exceedingly craggy and steep on each side of the town stands a pointed rock, projecting a considerable space into the sea, so that when the wind prevails a more dangerous situation for shipping cannot be imagined.

At break of day, the wind, called by the people of the country the black north, arose, and caused the most terrible tempest that had been known: the vessels of those who had escaped from Joppa, by being thrown against the rocks, or dashed with great violence against each other, were broken to pieces: some, by dint of rowing, endeavoured to avoid being foundered by keeping in the open sea, were tossed upon mountainous billows, and then precipitated into the most profound abyss of waters, and great numbers of the vessels sunk. During this violent contention of the elements, the noises occasioned by the dashing of the vessels, and the lamentations and outcries of the miserable people, were dismal and terrifying beyond description. Many of the people were washed away by the billows, and dashed against the rocks; some were drowned; others fell upon their swords, and several perished on board the wrecks ; and, in short, the water was covered with the blood of the deceased, whose carcases were dispersed upon the coast. During this shocking scene, the Roman soldiers waited to destroy those who should be driven ashore alive. It was computed that four thousand two hundred bodies were cast upon the shore by the waves.

The Romans having obtained possession of Joppa without being under the necessity of proceeding to a battle, they soon laid the place entirely in ruins. It was the fate of this city to be twice subjected to the Roman power in a short space of time. Lest Joppa should again be inhabited by pirates, Vespasian fortified the castle, and established a garrison therein sufficient for its defence: he also left a strong body of horse to set fire to and destroy the towns and villages, and lay waste the adjacent country, which, in obedience to the command of their general, they punctually executed.

A considerable personal esteem for Vespasian, a disposition to shew himself faithful to the Romans, the desire to preserve his subjects in a state of tranquillity, and perhaps a secret wish to mitigate the distresses of his countrymen, induced Agrippa to cultivate the acquaintance of Vespasian, and to invite that Roman general to visit him at Cæsarea Philippi. Here Vespasian spent the term of twenty days in uninterrupted feastings and rejoicing, attended with his army. At length, having heard that Tarichea had revolted, and that Tiberias was about to follow its example, he determined to shew his kindness to Agrippa by immediately reducing these places, which belonged to the government of that prince. Vespasian having marched against Tiberias, the more numerous part of the inhabitants intreated and received his mercy, while Jesus, the son of Tobias, and the faction which he commanded, retired to the neighbouring city of Taricheæ.

Having departed from Tiberias, Vespasian encamped his army between that city and Tarichea; and, conceiving that the intended siege would occupy a considerable time, he fortified the camp by erecting a wall. Taricheæ, like Tiberias, is situated upon a mountain, and Josephus had constructed a wall, encompassing it on every side, except on that where it is fortified by the lake Gennesareth, and the circuit of this wall was nearly equal to that of Tiberias. Nature and art had contributed to render the place exceedingly strong, and it was inhabited by the most desperate of the revolters.

At the commencement of the insurrection, the people collected great quantities of provisions; and, being sufficiently provided with men and money, they were under little apprehension of being subdued. They had a numerous fleet of armed vessels on the lake, in which they meant to embark in case of being repulsed on shore.

Jesus and his associates, regardless of the force and discipline of the enemy, made a violent assault upon them while they were employed in forming intrenchments and other fortifications, and dispersed the pioneers, and did considerable injury to the Roman works. The Romans pursued them to the lake, where they took shipping; and, having proceeded beyond the reach of the Roman darts and arrows, they cast anchor, and ranged their vessels in order of battle.

In the interim, Vespasian received intelligence that a great number of Jews had assembled or a plain adjacent to the city, in consequence whereof he dispatched a body of six thousand chosen cavalry, under the command of his son, to make discoveries. Titus marched to reconnoitre the situation of the Jews; and finding them to be much more numerous than the troops under his command, he sent intelligence thereof to Vespasian. Though many of the troops under Titus were greatly alarmed by the superior force of the Jews, the majority of them still preserved an undaunted resolution.

Antonius Silo was at the same time dispatched by Vespasian with orders to lead a body of two thousand archers to occupy a mountain facing the town, and assault the Jews who were appointed to defend the walls; and this they punctually observed. Being desirous of rendering his army more formidable in appearance than it was in reality, Titus arranged his men in a line answering the front of the enemy's forces; and he himself made the first assault, being followed by his people with loud exultations and military shouts. The Jews, who were astonished at the intrepid manner of the charge, made a faint resistance; but being soon thrown into disorder, many were beat down and trampled to death by the cavalry, and others fled towards the city.. The fugitives were closely pursued by the Romans, who, through the swiftness of their horses, being enabled to attack them again in front, drove back many who were endeavouring to take refuge within the walls. Great numbers were slain, and but few, if any, escaped, excepting those who were so fortunate as to get into the city.

At this period a violent insurrection took place between the natives of Tariches and the strangers who inhabited the city. The natives urged that they had ever been averse to engaging in the war; but the advantage gained by the Romans was the principal cause of their discontent. The strangers, of whom there were great numbers. opposed the citizens in the most outrageous manner. Titus, being near the wall, soon understood that outrage and dissension prevailed in the town; and, determining to take advantage of so favourable an opportunity, he mounted his horse, and being followed by his troops, he rode with great speed to that quarter of the town which is towards the lake, and he was the first man who entered the city. So astonished were the Jews at the intrepid behaviour of Titus, that they had not power to offer the least obstruction to his progress. Jesus and his associates escaped into the fields: some of the people fled towards the lake, and fell into the power of the Romans; others were slain while endeavouring to get into their vessels, and many were drowned in the attempt to save themselves by swimming. Some resistance was made by the strangers who were not able to escape with Jesus; but the natives of the town readily yielded to the Romans, from whom they expected favour, from the consideration that they had disapproved of engaging in the war, and been compelled to take up arms.

The faction being subdued, Titus granted quarter to the natives of Taricheæ. The insurgents who had embarked upon the lake proceeded to as great a distance as

they possibly could from the enemy. Titus dispatched intelligence of the enterprize to Vespasian, to whom it afforded great satisfaction; for the reduction of Tarichea was considered as a most material point towards a termination of the war in favour of the Romans. Titus now ordered a guard to invest the city, lest any of the Jews should effect an escape; and he went to the lake of Gennezareth on the following day, and commanded a number of vessels to be constructed for the purpose of pursuing those who had made a retreat by water. There being a great number of workmen, and a plentiful supply of materials, the vessels were completed in a few days.

The vessels being prepared, Vespasian embarked in pursuit of the Jews who had escaped on the lake of Gennesareth. The fugitives had now no probable views of escaping the vengeance of the enemy; for the shore being wholly occupied by the Romans, they could not disembark without meeting inevitable destruction; and their boats, beside being too small, were so slightly built, that they could not expect to prove victorious in a naval engagement. The Jews endeavoured to annoy their adversaries by casting stones, and by other means which proved equally ineffectual; for the weapons they discharged served only to cause a noise by meeting the vessels or arms of the Romans, who were well defended against every assault they could make: when they attempted a close encounter, they were either put to death by the sword, or their vessels overset and the men drowned. Some of the Romans fought at a distance, and made great havoc with their darts and arrows; others boarded the vessels of the Jews, and cut the men to pieces with their swords. Several of the Jewish boats were conquered by being inclosed within the two divisions of the Roman fleet. Such as attempted to save themselves by swimming were put to death by lances and darts, or sunk by being over-run by the Roman vessels; and those who were urged by despair to attempt saving themselves by getting on board the enemy's fleet, had their hands or heads instantly severed from their bodies. At length, the Jews were driven to such extremity, that they pressed into the middle of the Roman fleet in order to get to shore. Horror and destruction now prevailed in the greatest variety of forms: great numbers of Jews were killed on the water, but the carnage was much more terrible on shore; the lake was discoloured with blood, and the banks were covered with the bodies of the slain. In a few days the carcases putrified, and infected the air to such a degree as to render life almost insupportable; and even the Romans lamented the barbarity which had produced so terrible a calamity. The Jews who were slain when the Romans assaulted the city, and those who perished in the naval encounter, amounted to -six thousand five hundred.

The engagement being concluded, Vespasian summoned a council of all his principal officers to assemble in the city of Taricheæ; and, placing himself upon the tribunal, he entered upon deliberations as to what measures were most adviseable to be pursued in regard to the strangers. The council opposed shewing mercy to the strangers, urging that they would be dangerous to the princes into whose dominions they might retire, since they would indisputably avail themselves of every opportunity for promoting troubles and insurrections. Vespasian was convinced that they were unworthy of mercy, and so sensible of their abandoned dispositions, that he entertained not the least doubt of their attempting the destruction even of the very people to whom they might be indebted for the preservation of their lives; but what means to adopt he was at a loss to determine; for he knew that if he put the strangers to death in the city, it would prove a circumstance productive of infinite.affliction to the natives, who, having surrendered to him, had received his promise of shewing favour to his prisoners. The council argued that, from the nature of circumstances, he was under no absolute obligation to observe a rigid conformity to the condition, and that the case

must be decided by a regard to the public, welfare: Vespasian coincided in this opinion, but determined not to irritate the natives. He permitted the strangers to depart, having first commanded them to take the road to Tiberias, and stationed a number of Romans on the road to prevent their escape. When they had got within the town, the Romans made them prisoners; and, upon the arrival of Vespasian, he ordered them to be confined in the amphitheatre, where he caused those who were superannuated, as well as those who were judged to be too young to bear arms, to be put to death; and the number of those who perished in consequence of the general's order was twelve hundred. He sent six thousand of the most athletic men to Nero, to be employed in working upon the Isthmus; three thousand four hundred were sold into slavery; he presented a great number to Agrippa, to be disposed of as his discretion should dictate; and these people were sold by the king. The remaining part of the incendiary fugitives, whose restless disposition had prompted the revolt, were Hipponians, people of Gaulanitis, Gadara, and Trachonitis.

Gamala and Giscala yet remained unsubdued. Gamala stood on the lake of Tiberias, opposite to Taricheæ, and belonged to the government of Agrippa. It was built on the cliff of a rock rising from the midst of a high mountain: it had crags on the front and back part of it, and took its name from its resemblance to the back of a camel. Its natural strength was increased by art, and its inhabitants defended it with so much persevering valour, that king Agrippa could obtain no advantage over the place during a siege of seven months. At length, however, it was attacked by Vespasian, who entered it with a part of his troops, but was repulsed with great slaughter. The siege continued, notwithstanding the distresses of the inhabitants, who suffered much from famine and the destruction of their houses, till the twenty-second of the month] Hyperberetæus, on the night of which three soldiers having secretly undermined the tower, it fell, and thus opened a passage for the enemy.

The Romans were now induced to think of entering the town; but they had suffered so much in their late attempt, that they waited for some time undetermined how to act. In the interim, Titus arrived; and was so mortified at the disaster which the Romans had met with during his absence, that he immediately selected two hundred of his prime cavalry, and a body of infantry, and marched quietly into the city unopposed. An alarm of this proceeding being given by the watchmen, the news of it was instantly spread through the place; and was no sooner known, than the citizens fled in the utmost confusion to the castle, taking their wives and children with them, and crying and exclaiming as if they were distracted The soldiers under Titus destroyed some of them, while others, who could not get into the castle, strolled about heedless whither they went, till they fell into the hands of the Roman guards. In a word, the streets flowed with blood; nothing was to be heard but the groans of the wounded, and nothing seen but death in its most horrid forms.

Vespasian's business was now to attack the castle; and, for this purpose, his whole army was drawn towards that spot. This castle was situated on the point of a rock remarkably high and steep, surrounded by a number of precipices and crags, and almost inaccessible. This being its situation, the Romans could neither reach the Jews from below, nor avoid the stones and shot with which they were assaulted from above. But, at this juncture, Providence seemed to determine in favour of the Romans, and decree the destruction of the Jews; for a violent wind drove the Roman arrows upon the Jews, and prevented their reaching the Romans, or blew them wide of the mark. This gust of wind was likewise so strong, that the besieged were unable to make their defence, or even to see the enemies with whom they had to contend. These advantages in