y able to restrain the enthusiastic
fury of the soldiers, and the fire proceeded on more and more, he went
into the holy place of the temple, with his commanders, and saw it, with
what was in it, which he found to be far superior to what the relations
of foreigners contained, and not inferior to what we ourselves boasted
of and believed about it. But as the flame had not as yet reached to its
inward parts, but was still consuming the rooms that were about the
holy house, and Titus supposing what the fact was, that the house itself
might yet be saved, he came in haste and endeavored to persuade the
soldiers to quench the fire, and gave order to Liberalius the centurion,
and one of those spearmen that were about him, to beat the soldiers that
were refractory with their staves, and to restrain them; yet were their
passions too hard for the regards they had for Caesar, and the dread
they had of him who forbade them, as was their hatred of the Jews, and
a certain vehement inclination to fight them, too hard for them also.
Moreover, the hope of plunder induced many to go on, as having this
opinion, that all the places within were full of money, and as seeing
that all round about it was made of gold. And besides, one of those
that went into the place prevented Caesar, when he ran so hastily out to
restrain the soldiers, and threw the fire upon the hinges of the gate,
in the dark; whereby the flame burst out from within the holy house
itself immediately, when the commanders retired, and Caesar with them,
and when nobody any longer forbade those that were without to set
fire to it. And thus was the holy house burnt down, without Caesar's
approbation.

8. Now although any one would justly lament the destruction of such a
work as this was, since it was the most admirable of all the works
that we have seen or heard of, both for its curious structure and its
magnitude, and also for the vast wealth bestowed upon it, as well as for
the glorious reputation it had for its holiness; yet might such a one
comfort himself with this thought, that it was fate that decreed it so
to be, which is inevitable, both as to living creatures, and as to works
and places also. However, one cannot but wonder at the accuracy of this
period thereto relating; for the same month and day were now observed,
as I said before, wherein the holy house was burnt formerly by the
Babylonians. Now the number of years that passed from its first
foundation, which was la