On the Destruction of Jerusalem 4.26–5.1

At that time the rumor of civil wars grew strong in the Roman army, made known by the deaths of Galba and Otho and the rule of Vitellius, who was more worthless than the former, as if the dregs had settled. The men of long service began to confer among themselves and to resent that the Praetorian legions at Rome should usurp so much that, although they had long since given up experiencing the dangers of wars and did not know the names of the nations that were making war, they nevertheless appointed the commander of the war, and set in their own hands the choice of the arbiter of Roman affairs. Then, by such an example, the soldiers stationed in Gaul had aspired to give the empire to Vitellius without consulting the senate and the Roman people; meanwhile they themselves were treated as mercenaries who followed the decisions of others: first in danger, last in honor; waging war for so long, with triumphs growing daily, they received masters from inferiors, and not even useful ones, but all the laziest, or men given over to the belly and to shame. They must go to meet this and remove the injury. They had in Vespasian a vigorous man, whom it would have been fitting for all to choose as emperor; mature in age for counsel, stronger than younger men for fighting. They must hasten the sooner, lest he be chosen first by others, and they be despised by the men with whom he had grown old in service as he triumphed. When would there be a more opportune time for a worthy reward to be paid for his labors? “That Vitellian abyss, the disgrace even of private men (I will not say of emperors), neither the senate nor the Roman people will tolerate any longer, that the reproach of drunkards should remain longer at the summit of an empire whose resources are not enough for his expenses. For who would bear a tyrant to reign, when he has in the army a governor worthy of the Roman empire? And what nations would submit themselves to luxury and give themselves up to vices, when the cowardice of an emperor is an incitement to war, and on the other hand firmness is the strength of peace, courage against the enemy, sobriety in the ruler of the state! Who does not look up to Vespasian, still a private man, as having the glory of rule and the authority of the Roman empire, to whom so many military units are at hand, and all the stronger force of the Roman army? What are we waiting for? That, raised up by our valor, he should owe it to others that he is emperor, and we should yield to others what is within the right of our power? Certainly, if we do not wish to honor him, let us not belittle him. Nor let us do him this injury, that by our judgment he be rejected as unworthy of the empire of which Vitellius is held worthy. Finally, since his brother and his son Domitian are in Italy, we must surely fear that he who ought long since to have been an ornament to his own may become their danger; or if they, as we think, begin to press the tyrant, it may be held against him that his brother and son rebelled, and we may begin to look upon as a defendant the man we did not wish to see as emperor.” Shouting these things among themselves, the soldiers approached Vespasian and asked him to take up the helm of the Roman empire. But he refused and said he was unworthy: there was already an established emperor, civil war must be avoided. They pressed more urgently, he resisted more persistently. At last, as he struggled against it, they surrounded him in arms, threatening death with their swords, since they perceived that a charge would remain against them, and grave danger, if he refused. So he yielded to their pressure rather than accepted of his own will what others are wont to canvass for. The soldiers urged, the commanders persuaded: he put on the care before the honor. He hastened to Egypt, for he knew that the greatest resources of the Roman state were there, from which food was supplied: he must seek support there for himself if he won, or a check on Vitellius if he thought the war would have to be drawn out longer. He knew also that there were two legions there, which he hastened to attach to himself, so that the greatest city, surrounded by very many natural defenses, should remain in his own control rather than another's, useful enough for either outcome of the war. And therefore we have thought we should say something, even briefly, about the situation of the places, and especially about the chief city itself.

The city of Alexandria was founded by Alexander, to whom for his valor was given the surname of the Great general. It lies like a barrier between Egypt and the sea, a city without harbors, as are almost all the places of Egypt, and difficult of access from outside, since it lies in the more remote parts of Asia. Toward Europe, because Egypt itself borders on the dry lands of Libya; its southern upper parts are separated from the Ethiopians by Syene and by the unnavigable cataracts of the river Nile. On the east the Red Sea pours back, as far as Clysma, a place that is the last on the edge of the earth and opens a passage to the Indians for those who sail. So, fenced on one side by the burning fires of the sun, on the other by the Indian and Egyptian seas, it rests on land only by one northern wall, which leads into Syria. Everything else is shut off on all sides and fortified by the help of nature; yet the same defense of the northern quarter is divided and open by a double boundary, by which either foreign supplies are brought across the seas into Egypt or freer use is spread over the lands. The land lies of boundless extent. For between Syene and Pelusium the whole length is two thousand stadia, if what is asserted is to be trusted; and from Plinthine to Pelusium likewise three thousand six hundred stadia. It is a region unaccustomed to rain, yet not in want of rains, since the waterings of the Nile supply it with rains of their own accord. On both sides it has the Nile: the bounty of heaven, the fruitfulness of the earth; it tempers the fields, enriches the soil, is useful alike to sailors and farmers: the former sail, the latter sow; the former travel around their own countryside in boats, the latter cultivate with the plough, sowing, travelling without a cart. You may see the land marked out by streams and as it were raised up with walls of boats: whole homes travel over the lands that the Nile flows around. For it is navigable as far as the city of the Elephantines, as they call it; farther the cataracts we mentioned do not allow a ship to go, not for lack of depth, but because of the precipitous falls of the whole river and a certain collapse of the waters. The harbor of the city, like most entrances of seaside places, is difficult of access, and far more difficult than the rest; as if in the shape of a human body, it is more capacious in the head itself and in the anchorage, narrower in the throat, where it receives the passage of the sea and of ships, through which some breathing help is supplied to the harbor; when one has escaped the narrows and the mouth of the harbor, as in the rest of the body's shape, so the sea extends far and wide. On the right of the harbor is a small island, and on it a very great tower, which Greeks and Latins alike have called Pharos from the use of the thing itself, because it is seen from far off by those sailing, so that before they approach the harbor, especially at night, they may know from the blaze of the flames that land is near them, lest, deceived by the darkness, they run onto the rocks or be unable to make out the limit of the entrance. So there are attendants there, by whom, with torches and other piles of wood set beneath, the fire is kindled as a herald of land and a sign of the harbor's throat, showing the narrows of the entrance, the bays of the waves, the windings of the entrance, so that a thin keel may not graze the reefs and strike at the very entrance among rocks covered by the waves. So the straight course must be bent little by little, lest the ship run into danger, dashed against the hidden rocks, in the very place where escape from danger is hoped for. For the approach to the harbor is narrower, because on the right side it is confined by the flank, on the left by rocks with which the left side of the harbor is obstructed. Around the island too great masses of huge size are thrown down, lest by the constant force of the rising sea the foundations of the island give way and be loosened by too great a force. Hence it happens that as the waves dash against part of the island and run against each other between the rough rocks and the built moles, that middle channel is always restless, and with its passage made rough the entry becomes dangerous for ships. The extent of the harbor is thirty stadia, a safe anchorage, of very great calm in any storm: because by the narrows of that mouth and the barrier of the island it drives back the waves of the sea, and within it becomes a very safe harbor, a kind of compensation for the dangerous entry; for by the same narrows of the harbor's mouth the bay of the whole harbor is defended and kept away from the storms, and is calmed against the cold winds by which the entries are made rough. Not without reason is the safety or the size of such a harbor so great, since it is necessary that what serves the use of the whole world be brought into it. For the innumerable peoples of those places seek the commerce of the whole world for their use, and the region, fertile in grain and abounding in the other gifts and goods of the earth, feeds the whole world with grain and furnishes it with necessary wares.

So when Vespasian had settled affairs at Alexandria in his favor, and the inclinations of all who were serving in the army were united in support of his rule, secure about his absence, he hastened his return to Syria, having first given instructions to Tiberius Alexander, who then governed Egypt, to win for him the favor of his army, which was then in the upper parts, and also himself to aid the needs of the Roman empire with whatever forces he could. Tiberius made known by letter to the provincials and soldiers what had been laid on him, and it was received by all with joy: loyalty was promised, favor poured out. Caesarea received Vespasian; from there he went to Berytus, as embassies from the cities flocked to him with the greatest joy. There too Josephus was ordered by the emperor's command to be released from his chains. Titus urged that the chains be broken rather than unfastened: for if they were broken, it would be as if he had never been bound. His father approved; he ordered an axe to be brought and the chains to be broken, so that the Jews might perceive that pardon would not be denied to them either if they turned and asked for peace; at the same time, because he now kept Josephus not at another's discretion, since the decision of all things had been brought to himself.

They came to Antioch; there it was discussed by what route he should cross to Italy, since he had judged that everything in Egypt and Alexandria was safe. Speed was the aim. So he sent Mucianus with a large part of the cavalry and infantry, to reach Italy before the emperor's arrival. Mucianus, deterred by fear of a long voyage, directed his march through Cappadocia and Phrygia. Vespasian also ordered Antonius, commander of the Third Legion, which was in Moesia, to pour into Italy, now under command, before the Vitellians made a move. For Vitellius, as if drunk and sunk in sleep, thinking it was a banquet and not an empire that was being managed, slept in the midst of such great affairs. At length, barely roused by the news of Antonius's approach, he sent Caecina with part of the army, and committed the whole of his danger to another's discretion, relying on the strength of Caecina, because he had routed Otho's force. Caecina met Antonius as he came near the city of Cremona; he examined everything and learned that a very strong force was approaching from different quarters, vigorous in war, trained by triumphs; that he could not fight against stronger men, being neither equal in strength nor in number. Having called the centurions together, he urged them to give up the war, since they were inferior in number and the emperor's glory weighed heavily: “the reputation of a general who directs the whole cause is powerful enough in war. Vespasian has shone in the regions of Gaul and in the victories over the Britains; Vespasian is girt with the laurels of the East, with the great prestige of his name. Vitellius, on the other hand, is nothing but a man dissolved by wine and always belching the feasts of yesterday's banquets, who expects nothing but that, when the enemy comes, he will perish drunk without feeling pain. From the one the soldiers' spirits are raised by the glory of so great an emperor; by the other they are cast down through his reproaches and shameful deeds. We must take care not to lose the fame of the earlier war. Although we conquered Otho, who was a match for Vitellius, now our business is against one who has girded the whole world with his triumphs. We must forestall necessity by favor, so that we choose Vespasian as a fellow citizen rather than try him as an enemy. It is wretched to conquer in civil war; how much more wretched to be conquered, so that you seem the enemy of your own! To the victor the homeland remains; for the vanquished it perishes; or if it remains, it will remain to the odium of the crime, so that we seem to have made war on our fellow citizens for a tyrant. For he who is conquered is no longer a citizen but a tyrant. Why do we join guilty hands? Let it be enough to have conquered once, quickly, so that we are ashamed of the one for whom we conquered. We thought that the rule would either be sober, or, roused by the weight of affairs, would renounce perpetual sleep. Why do we wait any longer? Our dangers are thankless to all our fellow soldiers; our judgments are blamed and condemned by all peoples because of the shameful deeds of the one we chose. Consider what sort of man he is who, even as victor, has been repudiated. Certainly one must deliberate first about the outcome of the war, and then fight. If dangers have come first, you will deliberate in vain; when a plan has been approved, you will begin rightly.” This was the part of a careful general, he said: he had examined everything, and it was clear to him. Vespasian's army was stronger; his own loyalty to Vitellius had long since been proved when he had confidence in the outcome of the war; victory was secure for the other side now that he distrusted it; what would happen was obvious. Nor was his own death a thing he feared, but the danger of the Roman army, and, what grieves men more, the loss of praise already won, so that those who are wont to conquer should seem conquered. He must certainly beware lest it be judged that his victory in the earlier war was due not to courage but to chance, and that his later defeat was due to cowardice.

By these and similar speeches he drew the soldiers over to his view, so that they would go with him to Antonius of their own will and surrender to him. But such is the fickleness of the crowd, above all of soldiers, that many were pricked in conscience during the night in their beds, and, now that they had deserted, were seized with remorse toward Vitellius, lest, if he came out on top, no place of pardon should remain for them who had abandoned their own emperor. And rising, they began to confer, first with whomever they met, then with all, about how to correct their error; and drawing their swords they leapt upon Caecina, wishing to avenge the injury of their lapse. But when the centurions and tribunes intervened, they thought they should refrain from killing him, but they prepared to send him in chains to Vitellius. On learning this, Antonius set in motion those he had brought with him and fell in arms on the defectors. They, seeing the column of the opposing side, prepared for battle; but after daring to resist for a little while, when they turned to flee to Cremona, Antonius met them with the cavalry and blocked every approach, so that the fugitives should not be received, and killed them shut out before the city. A very great multitude was slain there; the rest he pursued into the city itself and destroyed. Everything was plundered; very many inhabitants were killed for the sake of booty while they defended their own. Thirty thousand two hundred men of Vitellius's army who were present were destroyed. And Primus (for that was Antonius's surname) lost four thousand five hundred of the soldiers from Moesia, since the Vitellians, despairing of safety and wishing to avenge themselves, when they saw themselves surrounded, yielded the victory not without bloodshed even to the Antonians. Caecina, released from his chains, was sent by Antonius to Vespasian; and there he was consoled for the stain of treachery not only by the security of his safety but also by the payment of rewards.

Elated by the news of this victory, Sabinus, wishing himself too to win favor with the emperor if he could forestall the arriving Antonius by the destruction or expulsion of Vitellius, or, if Vitellius resisted, Antonius would come up, who was heard to be on the point of arriving, gathered a band of soldiers from those units stationed at Rome that took care of the duties of the watch, and by night seized the Capitol. Very many of the nobles flocked to him during the day, among them Domitian too, born of Vespasian's line, who feared that Vitellius's vengeance would be turned on him as Vespasian's kin. Vitellius, placed between two enemies, attacked the nearer, less anxious about the more distant (for nearer dangers terrify more). In anger he sent the Germans against the Capitol; they, very fierce with the savagery of their race and at the same time stronger in numbers, surrounded Sabinus's rebellious band; almost all were killed. Domitian, however, with many of the nobles, while the Germans were struggling toward the upper parts of the Capitol and being driven back from the place by Sabinus and his companions, found an opportunity to flee, or perhaps because he too was being kept for a public evil, the tyrant he was to become. Vitellius tortured Sabinus and killed him; all the gifts offered on the Capitol were plundered, and the temple was set on fire.

The next day Antonius arrived. He was met by the opposing side, and three engagements were fought around the walls of the city: all the Vitellians were routed and cut down. Meanwhile Vitellius was feasting, so as not to lose his lunch though about to die, and, as is usual in last extremities, he was stuffing himself with more abundant dishes at his last table. He drowned himself in more frequent cups of wine, so as to lose the sense of the coming disgrace or danger. He was dragged from the banquet, hauled through the crowd, mocked as he was about to die; injuries were heaped on him which in his drunkenness he did not feel. He was killed in the middle of the city, pouring out wine and blood together, belching his surfeit; had he lived longer, he would have devoured the wealth of the Roman empire in the costs of luxury and the price of his tables. In all he reigned eight months and five days. And already Rome had been drained by his gluttony. Over fifty thousand others were counted among the slain.

On the following day Mucianus and Antonius entered together with the army, and barely put an end to the killing by the raging soldiers, because they were pursuing the Vitellians as those who had presumed to set up an emperor, and searched private houses, roused by such indignation that when they tracked down some of the people hiding out of fear, they struck them down as Vitellians before inquiry could make the truth plain, so that more often the fury of the victors forestalled questioning. And because Vespasian was absent, Mucianus put Domitian in charge of public affairs as a kind of regent, so that nothing of his should be lacking to his good fortune. As yet, however, the lust for crimes had not fully poured itself into Domitian: he was still raw in vices, and a novice in crimes as in power. Vespasian, held back by winter, with the sea closed by the winds, returned with his son to Alexandria. There, learning the news of the victory and the favor of the Roman people toward him, he decided to hasten his departure, lest anything new be attempted in his absence. Yet he did not leave the Jewish war neglected; he thought it should be entrusted to his son as the partner of his works and his successor, so that he himself should not be lacking to the Romans, nor Vespasian to the Jews, since his son would represent him. So Titus, chosen as the one to carry out his father's triumph, set out with a chosen band; he went out on foot and made for Nicopolis. That city is twenty stadia from Alexandria. From there, putting the soldiers on a fleet of larger ships, he went down the Nile as far as the city of Thmuis. Proceeding from there, he lodged in a city whose name is Tanis. The second station for travellers is the city of Heracleopolis, the third Pelusium. Having spent two days at Pelusium for the sake of rest, he made his way through the desert and came to the temple of Jupiter Casius. The next station is Ostracine, a place lacking water; yet the inhabitants by diligence had provided themselves a supply by constructing aqueducts. The people of Rhinocorura received the advancing army, not without welcome refreshment. Next came the city of Raphia, which is the beginning of Syria for those coming from Egypt. They came to Gaza, which was the fifth city on the way. From there to Ascalon, then to Jamnia, from which they passed to Joppa, and came to Caesarea, where it was necessary to stay a little while and also to gather a band of soldiers, which was still in winter quarters, and the harshness of winter was already ending.

In the first year of Vespasian's reign, Judea was torn by harsh wars and civil seditions, and had no truce from evils even through the winter, when the savagery of wars usually rests. Indeed, a third tyrant, Eleazar, had been added to it, as though to correct the vices of the earlier ones. With Judas and Simon son of Ezron, and Hezekiah, a young man of some note, conspiring with him, whom very many others accompanied, they seized the inner parts of the temple and its whole circuit, and set their arms above the gates on the front of the porch itself. John, however, was superior in the number of his fellow conspirators and the multitude of his faction, but inferior in position: though he was by no means idle but fought against those above him, still he was oppressed by having enemies over his head. Simon, whom the people had brought in as a tyrant over themselves, held the upper parts of the city; the lower parts too were filled with his people. The city labored within itself with a threefold battle: no interruption, no rest, no truce; they fought at every moment. Many fell, countless were butchered, blood flowed and fouled everything, it filled the very thresholds of the temple, corpses fell everywhere; some were struck with arrows, others with missiles. John was in the middle among the three, lower than Eleazar, higher than Simon: the more he was overtopped by Eleazar, the more he overtopped Simon; for he held the middle place between the two, so that the more he was pressed by one, the more he harmed the other. Better equipped than the rest with the support of engines, he made the war even by the kind of his weapons; so that, besides those who were waging the war, many of the priests were also killed and sacrificed among the very victims they had slaughtered. For although a thick crop of weapons fell on everyone and battles raged everywhere, the priests still solemnly performed the ministry of sacrifice and did not rest from the office entrusted to them; and the farther inside the temple they were, the more heavily they were killed, because the blows driven by engines struck harder. Many too who had come from the farthest parts of the world to pray, hoping for remedies of salvation, were caught up in greater dangers the more closely they kept to the temple. You might have seen foreigners lying with citizens, priests together with the profane, the grave with the shameful, the luxurious with the abstinent; and with the blood of all mingled indiscriminately and running down as if in a flood, the very inner recesses of the temple were pooled with it; everything around swelled with gore, so that many, while they attacked the champions of the opposing parties, slipped and, shaken by their fury, sank in blood. Not even so were the henchmen of the tyrants frightened by the danger into abstaining from battle; and the greater the danger, the more the storm of fury raged. If destruction had fallen more heavily on some, others were spurred on more vehemently as if to victory, so as to carry off the disordered. Eleazar and Simon at least had the possibility of drawing back, so as to restore themselves with truces, as it were, of a few hours; but John was always under arms, at every moment in combat: if those above had rested, those below from Simon's side pressed him; if he had thrown them into disorder, Eleazar harassed him. Nor did he himself allow them to be quiet: when he had driven off one, he leapt upon the others, sleepless in combat and tireless in cruelty itself. When they spared their weapons, they hurled fire, which, catching on the tops of the roofs, consumed the houses; and these, filled with grain and other stores of food for enduring a longer war, were burned up together, and gave greater fodder to the fire; the burnt timbers fell, the roofs of lofty buildings came rolling down. So by blood, fire, collapse and famine the sinews of the whole city were cut. No place was free of danger, no time of consolation was found, there was no hope of change, no chance of flight. Everything was mournful, full of horror, full of savagery: everywhere grief, everywhere dread, everywhere the cry of women, the wailing of old men, the groaning of the dying, the despair of the living, so that you would call wretched those who remained, blessed those who had died.