id by king Solomon, till this its destruction,
which happened in the second year of the reign of Vespasian, are
collected to be one thousand one hundred and thirty, besides seven
months and fifteen days; and from the second building of it, which
was done by Haggai, in the second year of Cyrus the king, till its
destruction under Vespasian, there were six hundred and thirty-nine
years and forty-five days.

CHAPTER 5.

The Great Distress The Jews Were In Upon The Conflagration
Of The Holy House. Concerning A False Prophet, And The Signs
That Preceded This Destruction.

1. While the holy house was on fire, every thing was plundered that came
to hand, and ten thousand of those that were caught were slain; nor
was there a commiseration of any age, or any reverence of gravity, but
children, and old men, and profane persons, and priests were all slain
in the same manner; so that this war went round all sorts of men, and
brought them to destruction, and as well those that made supplication
for their lives, as those that defended themselves by fighting. The
flame was also carried a long way, and made an echo, together with the
groans of those that were slain; and because this hill was high, and the
works at the temple were very great, one would have thought the whole
city had been on fire. Nor can one imagine any thing either greater
or more terrible than this noise; for there was at once a shout of the
Roman legions, who were marching all together, and a sad clamor of the
seditious, who were now surrounded with fire and sword. The people also
that were left above were beaten back upon the enemy, and under a great
consternation, and made sad moans at the calamity they were under; the
multitude also that was in the city joined in this outcry with those
that were upon the hill. And besides, many of those that were worn away
by the famine, and their mouths almost closed, when they saw the fire of
the holy house, they exerted their utmost strength, and brake out into
groans and outcries again: Pera [17] did also return the echo, as well
as the mountains round about [the city,] and augmented the force of
the entire noise. Yet was the misery itself more terrible than this
disorder; for one would have thought that the hill itself, on which the
temple stood, was seething hot, as full of fire on every part of it,
that the blood was larger in quantity than the fire, and those that were
slain more in number than those