gree on all sides, that they left no room for the fire to get among
them, and that every one of their souls was in such good courage, that
they would sooner die than desert their ranks; for besides their notion
that all their hopes were cut off, in case these their works were once
burnt, the soldiers were greatly ashamed that subtlety should quite be
too hard for courage, madness for armor, multitude for skill, and Jews
for Romans. The Romans had now also another advantage, in that their
engines for sieges co-operated with them in throwing darts and stones as
far as the Jews, when they were coming out of the city; whereby the man
that fell became an impediment to him that was next to him, as did the
danger of going farther make them less zealous in their attempts; and
for those that had run under the darts, some of them were terrified by
the good order and closeness of the enemies' ranks before they came to a
close fight, and others were pricked with their spears, and turned back
again; at length they reproached one another for their cowardice, and
retired without doing any thing. This attack was made upon the first
day of the month Panemus [Tamuz.] So when the Jews were retreated, the
Romans brought their engines, although they had all the while stones
thrown at them from the tower of Antonia, and were assaulted by fire and
sword, and by all sorts of darts, which necessity afforded the Jews to
make use of; for although these had great dependence on their own wall,
and a contempt of the Roman engines, yet did they endeavor to hinder
the Romans from bringing them. Now these Romans struggled hard, on the
contrary, to bring them, as deeming that this zeal of the Jews was
in order to avoid any impression to be made on the tower of Antonia,
because its wall was but weak, and its foundations rotten. However, that
tower did not yield to the blows given it from the engines; yet did
the Romans bear the impressions made by the enemies' darts which were
perpetually cast at them, and did not give way to any of those dangers
that came upon them from above, and so they brought their engines to
bear. But then, as they were beneath the other, and were sadly wounded
by the stones thrown down upon them, some of them threw their shields
over their bodies, and partly with their hands, and partly with their
bodies, and partly with crows, they undermined its foundations, and with
great pains they removed four of its stones. Then night came upon