of Ammianus, a contemporary and a pagan, will not permit us
to call in question. It was suggested by a passage in Tacitus. That
historian, speaking of Jerusalem, says, [I omit the first part of the
quotation adduced by M. Guizot, which only by a most extraordinary
mistranslation of muri introrsus sinuati by "enfoncemens" could be made
to bear on the question.--M.] The Temple itself was a kind of citadel,
which had its own walls, superior in their workmanship and construction
to those of the city. The porticos themselves, which surrounded the
temple, were an excellent fortification. There was a fountain of
constantly running water; subterranean excavations under the mountain;
reservoirs and cisterns to collect the rain-water. Tac. Hist. v. ii.
12. These excavations and reservoirs must have been very considerable.
The latter furnished water during the whole siege of Jerusalem to
1,100,000 inhabitants, for whom the fountain of Siloe could not have
sufficed, and who had no fresh rain-water, the siege having taken place
from the month of April to the month of August, a period of the year
during which it rarely rains in Jerusalem. As to the excavations, they
served after, and even before, the return of the Jews from Babylon,
to contain not only magazines of oil, wine, and corn, but also the
treasures which were laid up in the Temple. Josephus has related several
incidents which show their extent. When Jerusalem was on the point of
being taken by Titus, the rebel chiefs, placing their last hopes
in these vast subterranean cavities, formed a design of concealing
themselves there, and remaining during the conflagration of the city,
and until the Romans had retired to a distance. The greater part had not
time to execute their design; but one of them, Simon, the Son of Gioras,
having provided himself with food, and tools to excavate the earth
descended into this retreat with some companions: he remained there till
Titus had set out for Rome: under the pressure of famine he issued forth
on a sudden in the very place where the Temple had stood, and appeared
in the midst of the Roman guard. He was seized and carried to Rome for
the triumph. His appearance made it be suspected that other Jews
might have chosen the same asylum; search was made, and a great number
discovered. Joseph. de Bell. Jud. l. vii. c. 2. It is probable that
the greater part of these excavations were the remains of the time of
Solomon, when it was the custom to work