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[39]
And now Vespasian comforted his army, which was much dejected by
reflecting on their ill success, and because they had never before fallen
into such a calamity, and besides this, because they were greatly ashamed
that they had left their general alone in great dangers. As to what concerned
himself, he avoided to say any thing, that he might by no means seem to
complain of it; but he said that "we ought to bear manfully what usually
falls out in war, and this, by considering what the nature of war is, and
how it can never be that we must conquer without bloodshed on our own side;
for there stands about us that fortune which is of its own nature mutable;
that while they had killed so many ten thousands of the Jews, they had
now paid their small share of the reckoning to fate; and as it is the part
of weak people to be too much puffed up with good success, so is it the
part of cowards to be too much aftrighted at that which is ill; for the
change from the one to the other is sudden on both sides; and he is the
best warrior who is of a sober mind under misfortunes, that he may continue
in that temper, and cheerfully recover what had been lost formerly; and
as for what had now happened, it was neither owing to their own effeminacy,
nor to the valor of the Jews, but the difficulty of the place was the occasion
of their advantage, and of our disappointment. Upon reflecting on which
matter one might blame your zeal as perfectly ungovernable; for when the
enemy had retired to their highest fastnesses, you ought to have restrained
yourselves, and not, by presenting yourselves at the top of the city, to
be exposed to dangers; but upon your having obtained the lower parts of
the city, you ought to have provoked those that had retired thither to
a safe and settled battle; whereas, in rushing so hastily upon victory,
you took no care of your safety. But this incautiousness in war, and this
madness of zeal, is not a Roman maxim. While we perform all that we attempt
by skill and good order, that procedure is the part of barbarians, and
is what the Jews chiefly support themselves by. We ought therefore to return
to our own virtue, and to be rather angry than any longer dejected at this
unlucky misfortune, and let every one seek for his own consolation from
his own hand; for by this means he will avenge those that have been destroyed,
and punish those that have killed them. For myself, I will endeavor, as
I have now done, to go first before you against your enemies in every engagement,
and to be the last that retires from it."
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