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[15]
But now John and his party took care for securing themselves afterward,
even in case this wall should be thrown down, and fell to their work before
the battering rams were brought against them. Yet did they not compass
what they endeavored to do, but as they were gone out with their torches,
they came back under great discouragement before they came near to the
banks; and the reasons were these: that, in the first place, their conduct
did not seem to be unanimous, but they went out in distinct parties, and
at distinct intervals, and after a slow manner, and timorously, and, to
say all in a word, without a Jewish courage; for they were now defective
in what is peculiar to our nation, that is, in boldness, in violence of
assault, and in running upon the enemy all together, and in persevering
in what they go about, though they do not at first succeed in it; but they
now went out in a more languid manner than usual, and at the same time
found the Romans set in array, and more courageous than ordinary, and that
they guarded their banks both with their bodies and their entire armor,
and this to such a degree on all sides, that they left no room for the
fire to get among them, and that every one of their souls was in such good
courage, that they would sooner die than desert their ranks; for besides
their notion that all their hopes were cut off, in case these their works
were once burnt, the soldiers were greatly ashamed that subtlety should
quite be too hard for courage, madness for armor, multitude for skill,
and Jews for Romans. The Romans had now also another advantage, in that
their engines for sieges co-operated with them in throwing darts and stones
as far as the Jews, when they were coming out of the city; whereby the
man that fell became an impediment to him that was next to him, as did
the danger of going farther make them less zealous in their attempts; and
for those that had run under the darts, some of them were terrified by
the good order and closeness of the enemies' ranks before they came to
a close fight, and others were pricked with their spears, and turned back
again; at length they reproached one another for their cowardice, and retired
without doing any thing. This attack was made upon the first day of the
month Panemus [Tamuz.] So when the Jews were retreated, the Romans brought
their engines, although they had all the while stones thrown at them from
the tower of Antonia, and were assaulted by fire and sword, and by all
sorts of darts, which necessity afforded the Jews to make use of; for although
these had great dependence on their own wall, and a contempt of the Roman
engines, yet did they endeavor to hinder the Romans from bringing them.
Now these Romans struggled hard, on the contrary, to bring them, as deeming
that this zeal of the Jews was in order to avoid any impression to be made
on the tower of Antonia, because its wall was but weak, and its foundations
rotten. However, that tower did not yield to the blows given it from the
engines; yet did the Romans bear the impressions made by the enemies' darts
which were perpetually cast at them, and did not give way to any of those
dangers that came upon them from above, and so they brought their engines
to bear. But then, as they were beneath the other, and were sadly wounded
by the stones thrown down upon them, some of them threw their shields over
their bodies, and partly with their hands, and partly with their bodies,
and partly with crows, they undermined its foundations, and with great
pains they removed four of its stones. Then night came upon both sides,
and put an end to this struggle for the present; however, that night the
wall was so shaken by the battering rams in that place where John had used
his stratagem before, and had undermined their banks, that the ground then
gave way, and the wall fell down suddenly.
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