phna, he gave
orders that they should go round the wall, together with Josephus,
and show themselves to the people; upon which a great many fled to the
Romans. These men also got in a great number together, and stood before
the Romans, and besought the seditious, with groans and tears in their
eyes, in the first place to receive the Romans entirely into the city,
and save that their own place of residence again; but that, if they
would not agree to such a proposal, they would at least depart out of
the temple, and save the holy house for their own use; for that the
Romans would not venture to set the sanctuary on fire but under the most
pressing necessity. Yet did the seditious still more and more contradict
them; and while they cast loud and bitter reproaches upon these
deserters, they also set their engines for throwing of darts, and
javelins, and stones upon the sacred gates of the temple, at due
distances from one another, insomuch that all the space round about
within the temple might be compared to a burying-ground, so great was
the number of the dead bodies therein; as might the holy house itself
be compared to a citadel. Accordingly, these men rushed upon these holy
places in their armor, that were otherwise unapproachable, and that
while their hands were yet warm with the blood of their own people which
they had shed; nay, they proceeded to such great transgressions, that
the very same indignation which Jews would naturally have against
Romans, had they been guilty of such abuses against them, the Romans
now had against Jews, for their impiety in regard to their own religious
customs. Nay, indeed, there were none of the Roman soldiers who did not
look with a sacred horror upon the holy house, and adored it, and wished
that the robbers would repent before their miseries became incurable.

4. Now Titus was deeply affected with this state of things, and
reproached John and his party, and said to them, "Have not you, vile
wretches that you are, by our permission, put up this partition-wall
before your sanctuary? Have not you been allowed to put up the pillars
thereto belonging, at due distances, and on it to engrave in Greek,
and in your own letters, this prohibition, that no foreigner should go
beyond that wall. [10] Have not we given you leave to kill such as
go beyond it, though he were a Roman? And what do you do now, you
pernicious villains? Why do you trample upon dead bodies in this temple?
and why do you po