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[392]
And now were the banks finished on the seventh day of the month Gorpieus,
[Elul,] in eighteen days' time, when the Romans brought their machines
against the wall. But for the seditious, some of them, as despairing of
saving the city, retired from the wall to the citadel; others of them went
down into the subterranean vaults, though still a great many of them defended
themselves against those that brought the engines for the battery; yet
did the Romans overcome them by their number and by their strength; and,
what was the principal thing of all, by going cheerfully about their work,
while the Jews were quite dejected, and become weak. Now as soon as a part
of the wall was battered down, and certain of the towers yielded to the
impression of the battering rams, those that opposed themselves fled away,
and such a terror fell upon the tyrants, as was much greater than the occasion
required; for before the enemy got over the breach they were quite stunned,
and were immediately for flying away. And now one might see these men,
who had hitherto been so insolent and arrogant in their wicked practices,
to be cast down and to tremble, insomuch that it would pity one's heart
to observe the change that was made in those vile persons. Accordingly,
they ran with great violence upon the Roman wall that encompassed them,
in order to force away those that guarded it, and to break through it,
and get away. But when they saw that those who had formerly been faithful
to them had gone away, (as indeed they were fled whithersoever the great
distress they were in persuaded them to flee,) as also when those that
came running before the rest told them that the western wall was entirely
overthrown, while others said the Romans were gotten in, and others that
they were near, and looking out for them, which were only the dictates
of their fear, which imposed upon their sight, they fell upon their face,
and greatly lamented their own mad conduct; and their nerves were so terribly
loosed, that they could not flee away. And here one may chiefly reflect
on the power of God exercised upon these wicked wretches, and on the good
fortune of the Romans; for these tyrants did now wholly deprive themselves
of the security they had in their own power, and came down from those very
towers of their own accord, wherein they could have never been taken by
force, nor indeed by any other way than by famine. And thus did the Romans,
when they had taken such great pains about weaker walls, get by good fortune
what they could never have gotten by their engines; for three of these
towers were too strong for all mechanical engines whatsoever, concerning
which we have treated above.
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