person, whom, if you overcome, you do no great matter, and
by whom it is hazardous that you may be taken prisoner, would be an
instance, not of manly courage, but of unmanly rashness. So there being
nobody that came out to accept the man's challenge, and the Jew cutting
them with a great number of reproaches, as cowards, [for he was a very
haughty man in himself, and a great despiser of the Romans,] one whose
name was Pudens, of the body of horsemen, out of his abomination of
the other's words, and of his impudence withal, and perhaps out of an
inconsiderate arrogance, on account of the other's lowness of stature,
ran out to him, and was too hard for him in other respects, but was
betrayed by his ill fortune; for he fell down, and as he was down,
Jonathan came running to him, and cut his throat, and then, standing
upon his dead body, he brandished his sword, bloody as it was, and shook
his shield with his left hand, and made many acclamations to the Roman
army, and exulted over the dead man, and jested upon the Romans; till
at length one Priscus, a centurion, shot a dart at him as he was leaping
and playing the fool with himself, and thereby pierced him through;
upon which a shout was set up both by the Jews and the Romans, though
on different accounts. So Jonathan grew giddy by the pain of his wounds,
and fell down upon the body of his adversary, as a plain instance how
suddenly vengeance may come upon men that have success in war, without
any just deserving the same.

CHAPTER 3.

Concerning A Stratagem That Was Devised By The Jews, By
Which They Burnt Many Of The Romans; With Another
Description Of The Terrible Famine That Was In The City.

1. But now the seditious that were in the temple did every day openly
endeavor to beat off the soldiers that were upon the banks, and on the
twenty-seventh day of the forenamed month [Panemus or Tamuz] contrived
such a stratagem as this: They filled that part of the western cloister
[14] which was between the beams, and the roof under them, with dry
materials, as also with bitumen and pitch, and then retired from that
place, as though they were tired with the pains they had taken; at which
procedure of theirs, many of the most inconsiderate among the Romans,
who were carried away with violent passions, followed hard after them as
they were retiring, and applied ladders to the cloister, and got up to
it suddenly; but the prudent part of them, when they understo