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[172]
Now as these towers were so very tall, they appeared much taller
by the place on which they stood; for that very old wall wherein they were
was built on a high hill, and was itself a kind of elevation that was still
thirty cubits taller; over which were the towers situated, and thereby
were made much higher to appearance. The largeness also of the stones was
wonderful; for they were not made of common small stones, nor of such large
ones only as men could carry, but they were of white marble, cut out of
the rock; each stone was twenty cubits in length, and ten in breadth, and
five in depth. They were so exactly united to one another, that each tower
looked like one entire rock of stone, so growing naturally, and afterward
cut by the hand of the artificers into their present shape and corners;
so little, or not at all, did their joints or connexion appear. low as
these towers were themselves on the north side of the wall, the king had
a palace inwardly thereto adjoined, which exceeds all my ability to describe
it; for it was so very curious as to want no cost nor skill in its construction,
but was entirely walled about to the height of thirty cubits, and was adorned
with towers at equal distances, and with large bed-chambers, that would
contain beds for a hundred guests a-piece, in which the variety of the
stones is not to be expressed; for a large quantity of those that were
rare of that kind was collected together. Their roofs were also wonderful,
both for the length of the beams, and the splendor of their ornaments.
The number of the rooms was also very great, and the variety of the figures
that were about them was prodigious; their furniture was complete, and
the greatest part of the vessels that were put in them was of silver and
gold. There were besides many porticoes, one beyond another, round about,
and in each of those porticoes curious pillars; yet were all the courts
that were exposed to the air every where green. There were, moreover, several
groves of trees, and long walks through them, with deep canals, and cisterns,
that in several parts were filled with brazen statues, through which the
water ran out. There were withal many dove-courts 1
of tame pigeons about the canals. But indeed it is not possible to give
a complete description of these palaces; and the very remembrance of them
is a torment to one, as putting one in mind what vastly rich buildings
that fire which was kindled by the robbers hath consumed; for these were
not burnt by the Romans, but by these internal plotters, as we have already
related, in the beginning of their rebellion. That fire began at the tower
of Antonia, and went on to the palaces, and consumed the upper parts of
the three towers themselves.
1 These dove-courts in Josephus, built by Herod the Great, are, in the opinion of Reland, the very same that are mentioned by the Talmudists, and named by them "Herod's dove courts." Nor is there any reason to suppose otherwise, since in both accounts they were expressly tame pigeons which were kept in them.
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