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[323]
According to which resolution they marched without noise, at the
hour that had been told them, to the wall; and it was Titus himself that
first got upon it, with one of his tribunes, Domitius Sabinus, and had
a few of the fifteenth legion along with him. So they cut the throats of
the watch, and entered the city very quietly. After these came Cerealis
the tribune, and Placidus, and led on those that were tinder them. Now
when the citadel was taken, and the enemy were in the very midst of the
city, and when it was already day, yet was not the taking of the city known
by those that held it; for a great many of them were fast asleep, and a
great mist, which then by chance fell upon the city, hindered those that
got up from distinctly seeing the case they were in, till the whole Roman
army was gotten in, and they were raised up only to find the miseries they
were under; and as they were slaying, they perceived the city was taken.
And for the Romans, they so well remembered what they had suffered during
the siege, that they spared none, nor pitied any, but drove the people
down the precipice from the citadel, and slew them as they drove them down;
at which time the difficulties of the place hindered those that were still
able to fight from defending themselves; for as they were distressed in
the narrow streets, and could not keep their feet sure along the precipice,
they were overpowered with the crowd of those that came fighting them down
from the citadel. This provoked a great many, even of those chosen men
that were about Josephus, to kill themselves with their own hands; for
when they saw that they could kill none of the Romans, they resolved to
prevent being killed by the Romans, and got together in great numbers in
the utmost parts of the city, and killed themselves.
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