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[289]
About this time it was that Vespasian sent out Trajan against a
city called Japha, that lay near to Jotapata, and that desired innovations,
and was puffed up with the unexpected length of the opposition of Jotapata.
This Trajan was the commander of the tenth legion, and to him Vespasian
committed one thousand horsemen, and two thousand footmen. When Trajan
came to the city, he found it hard to be taken, for besides the natural
strength of its situation, it was also secured by a double wall; but when
he saw the people of this city coming out of it, and ready to fight him,
he joined battle with them, and after a short resistance which they made,
he pursued after them; and as they fled to their first wall, the Romans
followed them so closely, that they fell in together with them: but when
the Jews were endeavoring to get again within their second wall, their
fellow citizens shut them out, as being afraid that the Romans would force
themselves in with them. It was certainly God therefore who brought the
Romans to punish the Galileans, and did then expose the people of the city
every one of them manifestly to be destroyed by their bloody enemies; for
they fell upon the gates in great crowds, and earnestly calling to those
that kept them, and that by their names also, yet had they their throats
cut in the very midst of their supplications; for the enemy shut the gates
of the first wall, and their own citizens shut the gates of the second,
so they were enclosed between two walls, and were slain in great numbers
together; many of them were run through by swords of their own men, and
many by their own swords, besides an immense number that were slain by
the Romans. Nor had they any courage to revenge themselves; for there was
added to the consternation they were in from the enemy, their being betrayed
by their own friends, which quite broke their spirits; and at last they
died, cursing not the Romans, but their own citizens, till they were all
destroyed, being in number twelve thousand. So Trajan gathered that the
city was empty of people that could fight, and although there should a
few of them be therein, he supposed that they would be too timorous to
venture upon any opposition; so he reserved the taking of the city to the
general. Accordingly, he sent messengers to Vespasian, and desired him
to send his son Titus to finish the victory he had gained. Vespasian hereupon
imagining there might be some pains still necessary, sent his son with
an army of five hundred horsemen, and one thousand footmen. So he came
quickly to the city, and put his army in order, and set Trajan over the
left wing, while he had the right himself, and led them to the siege: and
when the soldiers brought ladders to be laid against the wall on every
side, the Galileans opposed them from above for a while; but soon afterward
they left the walls. Then did Titus's men leap into the city, and seized
upon it presently; but when those that were in it were gotten together,
there was a fierce battle between them; for the men of power fell upon
the Romans in the narrow streets, and the women threw whatsoever came next
to hand at them, and sustained a fight with them for six hours' time; but
when the fighting men were spent, the rest of the multitude had their throats
cut, partly in the open air, and partly in their own houses, both young
and old together. So there were no males now remaining, besides infants,
which, with the women, were carried as slaves into captivity; so that the
number of the slain, both now in the city and at the former fight, was
fifteen thousand, and the captives were two thousand one hundred and thirty.
This calamity befell the Galileans on the twenty-fifth day of the month
Desius [Sivan.]
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