this, he reflected on the desperate condition these men
must be in; nor could he expect that such men could be recovered to
sobriety of mind after they had endured those very sufferings, for the
avoiding whereof it only was probable they might have repented.

And now two of the legions had completed their banks on the eighth day
of the month Lous [Ab]. Whereupon Titus gave orders that the battering
rams should be brought and set over against the western edifice of the
inner temple; for before these were brought, the firmest of all the
other engines had battered the wall for six days together without
ceasing, without making any impression upon it; but the vast largeness
and strong connection of the stones were superior to that engine and to
the other battering rams also. Other Romans did indeed undermine the
foundations of the northern gate, and after a world of pains removed the
outermost stones, yet was the gate still upheld by the inner stones, and
stood still unhurt; till the workmen, despairing of all such attempts by
engines and crows, brought their ladders to the cloisters.

Now the Jews did not interrupt them in so doing; but when they were
gotten up, they fell upon them and fought with them; some of them they
thrust down and threw them backward headlong; others of them they met
and slew; they also beat many of those that went down the ladders again,
and slew them with their swords before they could bring their shields
to protect them; nay, some of the ladders they threw down from above
when they were full of armed men. A great slaughter was made of the Jews
also at the same time, while those that bare the ensigns fought hard for
them, as deeming it a terrible thing, and what would tend to their great
shame, if they permitted them to be stolen away. Yet did the Jews at
length get possession of these engines, and destroyed those that had
gone up the ladders, while the rest were so intimidated by what those
suffered who were slain that they retired; although none of the Romans
died without having done good service before his death. Of the
seditious, those that had fought bravely in the former battles did the
like now, as besides them did Eleazar, the brother's son of Simon the
tyrant. But when Titus perceived that his endeavors to spare a foreign
temple turned to the damage of his soldiers and made them be killed, he
gave order to set the gates on fire.

But then, on the next day, Titus commanded part of his army