attempt; and that was the occasion that this war
lasted so very long, and thereby the Jews were involved in such
incurable calamities.

5. In the mean time, many of the principal men of the city were
persuaded by Ananus, the son of Jonathan, and invited Cestius into the
city, and were about to open the gates for him; but he overlooked this
offer, partly out of his anger at the Jews, and partly because he did
not thoroughly believe they were in earnest; whence it was that he
delayed the matter so long, that the seditious perceived the treachery,
and threw Ananus and those of his party down from the wall, and,
pelting them with stones, drove them into their houses; but they stood
themselves at proper distances in the towers, and threw their darts at
those that were getting over the wall. Thus did the Romans make their
attack against the wall for five days, but to no purpose. But on the
next day Cestius took a great many of his choicest men, and with them
the archers, and attempted to break into the temple at the northern
quarter of it; but the Jews beat them off from the cloisters, and
repulsed them several times when they were gotten near to the wall, till
at length the multitude of the darts cut them off, and made them retire;
but the first rank of the Romans rested their shields upon the wall,
and so did those that were behind them, and the like did those that were
still more backward, and guarded themselves with what they call Testudo,
[the back of] a tortoise, upon which the darts that were thrown fell,
and slided off without doing them any harm; so the soldiers undermined
the wall, without being themselves hurt, and got all things ready for
setting fire to the gate of the temple.

6. And now it was that a horrible fear seized upon the seditious,
insomuch that many of them ran out of the city, as though it were to be
taken immediately; but the people upon this took courage, and where the
wicked part of the city gave ground, thither did they come, in order to
set open the gates, and to admit Cestius [30] as their benefactor, who,
had he but continued the siege a little longer, had certainly taken the
city; but it was, I suppose, owing to the aversion God had already at
the city and the sanctuary, that he was hindered from putting an end to
the war that very day.

7. It then happened that Cestius was not conscious either how the
besieged despaired of success, nor how courageous the people were for
him; and so he rec