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[253]
In the morning Vespasian got his army together, in order to take
the city [by storm], after a little recreation upon the hard pains they
had been at the night before; and as he was desirous to draw off those
that opposed him from the places where the wall had been thrown down, he
made the most courageous of the horsemen get off their horses, and placed
them in three ranks over against those ruins of the wall, but covered with
their armor on every side, and with poles in their hands, that so these
might begin their ascent as soon as the instruments for such ascent were
laid; behind them he placed the flower of the footmen; but for the rest
of the horse, he ordered them to extend themselves over against the wall,
upon the whole hilly country, in order to prevent any from escaping out
of the city when it should be taken; and behind these he placed the archers
round about, and commanded them to have their darts ready to shoot. The
same command he gave to the slingers, and to those that managed the engines,
and bid them to take up other ladders, and have them ready to lay upon
those parts of the wall which were yet untouched, that the besieged might
be engaged in trying to hinder their ascent by them, and leave the guard
of the parts that were thrown down, while the rest of them should be overborne
by the darts cast at them, and might afford his men an entrance into the
city.
Flavius Josephus. The Works of Flavius Josephus. Translated by. William Whiston, A.M. Auburn and Buffalo. John E. Beardsley. 1895.
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