not those within discover any fear, but they also contrived not a few
engines to oppose their engines withal. They also sallied out, and burnt
not only those engines that were not yet perfected, but those that were;
and when they came hand to hand, their attempts were not less bold than
those of the Romans, though they were behind them in skill. They
also erected new works when the former were ruined, and making mines
underground, they met each other, and fought there; and making use of
brutish courage rather than of prudent valor, they persisted in this war
to the very last; and this they did while a mighty army lay round
about them, and while they were distressed by famine and the want of
necessaries, for this happened to be a Sabbatic year. The first
that scaled the walls were twenty chosen men, the next were Sosius's
centurions; for the first wall was taken in forty days, and the second
in fifteen more, when some of the cloisters that were about the temple
were burnt, which Herod gave out to have been burnt by Antigonus, in
order to expose him to the hatred of the Jews. And when the outer court
of the temple and the lower city were taken, the Jews fled into the
inner court of the temple, and into the upper city; but now fearing lest
the Romans should hinder them from offering their daily sacrifices to
God, they sent an embassage, and desired that they would only permit
them to bring in beasts for sacrifices, which Herod granted, hoping they
were going to yield; but when he saw that they did nothing of what he
supposed, but bitterly opposed him, in order to preserve the kingdom to
Antigonus, he made an assault upon the city, and took it by storm; and
now all parts were full of those that were slain, by the rage of the
Romans at the long duration of the siege, and by the zeal of the Jews
that were on Herod's side, who were not willing to leave one of their
adversaries alive; so they were murdered continually in the narrow
streets and in the houses by crowds, and as they were flying to the
temple for shelter, and there was no pity taken of either infants or the
aged, nor did they spare so much as the weaker sex; nay, although the
king sent about, and besought them to spare the people, yet nobody
restrained their hand from slaughter, but, as if they were a company
of madmen, they fell upon persons of all ages, without distinction;
and then Antigonus, without regard to either his past or present
circumstances, came down