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 anything. 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.

When this accident had unexpectedly happened, the minds of both parties
were variously affected, for though one would expect that the Jews would
be discouraged, because this fall of their wall was unexpected by them,
and they had made no provision in that case, yet did they pull up their
courage, because the tower of Antonia itself was still standing; as was
the unexpected joy of the Romans at this fall o