s; and that it would be wiser to come to terms
with them, than to maintain a useless resistance, which would bring
destruction upon the nation. He remained a short time, only, at
Tiberias; and thence hurried up with his followers to Jotapata,
which he reached on the 14th of May.

Vespasian marched first to Gadara--which was undefended, the
fighting men having all gone to Jotapata--but, although no
resistance was offered, Vespasian put all the males to the sword;
and burned the town and all the villages in the neighborhood, and
then advanced against Jotapata. For four days, the pioneers of the
Roman army had labored incessantly--cutting a road through the
forests, filling up ravines, and clearing away obstacles--and, on
the fifth day, the road was constructed close up to Jotapata.

On the 14th of May, Placidus and Ebutius were sent forward by
Vespasian, with a thousand horse, to surround the town and cut off
all possibility of escape. On the following day Vespasian himself,
with his whole army, arrived there. The defenders of Jotapata could
scarcely believe their eyes when they saw the long, heavy
column--with all its baggage, and siege engines--marching along a
straight and level road, where they had believed that it would be
next to impossible for even the infantry of the enemy to make their
way. If this marvel had been accomplished in five days, what hope
was there that the city would be able to withstand this force,
which had so readily triumphed over the defenses of nature?

Chapter 5: The Siege Of Jotapata.

"Well, Joab, what do you think, now?" John said, as he stood on the
wall with his older companion, watching the seemingly endless
column of the enemy. "It seems to me that we are caught here, like
rats in a trap, and that we should have done better, a thousand
times, in maintaining our freedom of movement among the mountains.
It is one thing to cut a road; it would be another to clear off all
the forests from the Anti-Libanus and, so long as there was a
forest to shelter us, the Romans could never have overtaken us.
Here, there is nothing to do but to die."

"That is so, John. I own that the counsel you urged would have been
wiser than this. Here are all the best fighting men in Galilee,
shut up without hope of succor, or of mercy. Well, lad, we can at
least teach the Romans the lesson that the Jews know how to die;
and the capture of this mountain town will cost them as much as
they reckoned would