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[163]
NOW Lucilius Bassus was sent as legate into Judea, and there he received
the army from Cerealis Vitellianus, and took that citadel which was in
Herodium, together with the garrison that was in it; after which he got
together all the soldiery that was there, (which was a large body, but
dispersed into several parties,) with the tenth legion, and resolved to
make war upon Macherus; for it was highly necessary that this citadel should
be demolished, lest it might be a means of drawing away many into a rebellion,
by reason of its strength; for the nature of the place was very capable
of affording the surest hopes of safety to those that possessed it, as
well as delay and fear to those that should attack it; for what was walled
in was itself a very rocky hill, elevated to a very great height; which
circumstance alone made it very hard to he subdued. It was also so contrived
by nature, that it could not be easily ascended; for it is, as it were,
ditched about with such valleys on all sides, and to such a depth, that
the eye cannot reach their bottoms, and such as are not easily to be passed
over, and even such as it is impossible to fill up with earth. For that
valley which cuts it on the west extends to threescore furlongs, and did
not end till it came to the lake Asphaltitis; on the same side it was also
that Macherus had the tallest top of its hill elevated above the rest.
But then for the valleys that lay on the north and south sides, although
they be not so large as that already described, yet it is in like manner
an impracticable thing to think of getting over them; and for the valley
that lies on the east side, its depth is found to be no less than a hundred
cubits. It extends as far as a mountain that lies over against Macherus,
with which it is bounded.
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