er, the better chance there
was of obtaining favorable terms from the Romans. Ananus was the
leader and hope of the peace party, which comprised all the
respectable classes, and all the older and wiser men in Jerusalem.
His death left the conduct of affairs in the hands of the
thoughtless, the rash, and the desperate.

"The massacre continued for days, the Idumeans hunting the citizens
in the streets. Vast numbers were killed, without question. The
young men of the upper classes were dragged to prison, and were
there scourged and tortured to force them to join the Zealots, but
not one would do so. All preferred death. Thus perished twelve
thousand of the best and wisest in Jerusalem.

"Then the Zealots set up a tribunal and, by proclamation, assembled
seventy of the principal citizens remaining to form a court; and
before it brought Zacharias, the son of Baruch--an upright,
patriotic, and wealthy man. Him they charged with entering into
correspondence with the Romans, but produced no shadow of evidence
against him. Zacharias defended himself boldly, clearly
establishing his own innocence, and denouncing the iniquities of
his accusers. The seventy unanimously acquitted the prisoner,
preferring to die with him, to condemning an innocent man. The
Zealots rushed forward, with cries of rage, and slew Zacharias and,
with blows and insults, turned the judges out of the Temple.

"The Idumeans at length began to weary of massacre, and were sated
with pillage and, declaring that they had been deceived by the
Zealots, and that they believed no treason had been intended, they
left the city; first opening the prisons, and releasing two
thousand persons confined there, who fled to Simon the son of
Gioras, who was wasting the country toward Idumea.

"The Zealots, after their departure, redoubled their iniquities;
and seemed as if they would leave none alive, save the lowest of
the people. Gorion, a great and distinguished man, was among the
slain. Niger of Peraea, who had been the leader in the attack on
the Romans at Ascalon--a noble and true-hearted patriot--was also
murdered. He died calling upon the Romans to come to avenge those
who had been thus murdered; and denouncing famine, pestilence, and
civil massacre, as well as war, against the accursed city.

"I had lain hidden, with an obscure family, with whom I had lodged
during these terrible times. So great was the terror and misery in
the city that those who lived envied t