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[238]
Now as to the tower of Antonia, it was situated at the corner of
two cloisters of the court of the temple; of that on the west, and that
on the north; it was erected upon a rock of fifty cubits in height, and
was on a great precipice; it was the work of king Herod, wherein he demonstrated
his natural magnanimity. In the first place, the rock itself was covered
over with smooth pieces of stone, from its foundation, both for ornament,
and that any one who would either try to get up or to go down it might
not be able to hold his feet upon it. Next to this, and before you come
to the edifice of the tower itself, there was a wall three cubits high;
but within that wall all the space of the tower of Antonia itself was built
upon, to the height of forty cubits. The inward parts had the largeness
and form of a palace, it being parted into all kinds of rooms and other
conveniences, such as courts, and places for bathing, and broad spaces
for camps; insomuch that, by having all conveniences that cities wanted,
it might seem to be composed of several cities, but by its magnificence
it seemed a palace. And as the entire structure resembled that of a tower,
it contained also four other distinct towers at its four corners; whereof
the others were but fifty cubits high; whereas that which lay upon the
southeast corner was seventy cubits high, that from thence the whole temple
might be viewed; but on the corner where it joined to the two cloisters
of the temple, it had passages down to them both, through which the guard
(for there always lay in this tower a Roman legion) went several ways among
the cloisters, with their arms, on the Jewish festivals, in order to watch
the people, that they might not there attempt to make any innovations;
for the temple was a fortress that guarded the city, as was the tower of
Antonia a guard to the temple; and in that tower were the guards of those
three 1. There
was also a peculiar fortress belonging to the upper city, which was Herod's
palace; but for the hill Bezetha, it was divided from the tower Antonia,
as we have already told you; and as that hill on which the tower of Antonia
stood was the highest of these three, so did it adjoin to the new city,
and was the only place that hindered the sight of the temple on the north.
And this shall suffice at present to have spoken about the city and the
walls about it, because I have proposed to myself to make a more accurate
description of it elsewhere.
2
1 These three guards that lay in the tower of Antonia must be those that guarded the city, the temple, and the tower of Antonia.
2 CONCERNING THE TYRANTS SIMON AND JOHN. HOW ALSO AS TITUS WAS GOING ROUND THE WALL OF THIS CITY NICANOR WAS WOUNDED BY A DART; WHICH ACCIDENT PROVOKED TITUS TO PRESS ON THE SIEGE.
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