ir sakes; for that
if he staid with them, he should be able to do them little good while
they were in a safe condition; and that if they were once taken, he
should only perish with them to no purpose; but that if he were once
gotten free from this siege, he should be able to bring them very great
relief; for that he would then immediately get the Galileans together,
out of the country, in great multitudes, and draw the Romans off their
city by another war. That he did not see what advantage he could bring to
them now, by staying among them, but only provoke the Romans to besiege
them more closely, as esteeming it a most valuable thing to take him;
but that if they were once informed that he was fled out of the city,
they would greatly remit of their eagerness against it. Yet did not
this plea move the people, but inflamed them the more to hang about him.
Accordingly, both the children and the old men, and the women with their
infants, came mourning to him, and fell down before him, and all of them
caught hold of his feet, and held him fast, and besought him, with great
lamentations, that he would take his share with them in their fortune;
and I think they did this, not that they envied his deliverance, but
that they hoped for their own; for they could not think they should
suffer any great misfortune, provided Josephus would but stay with them.

17. Now Josephus thought, that if he resolved to stay, it would be
ascribed to their entreaties; and if he resolved to go away by force, he
should be put into custody. His commiseration also of the people under
their lamentations had much broken that his eagerness to leave them; so
he resolved to stay, and arming himself with the common despair of
the citizens, he said to them, "Now is the time to begin to fight in
earnest, when there is no hope of deliverance left. It is a brave
thing to prefer glory before life, and to set about some such noble
undertaking as may be remembered by late posterity." Having said
this, he fell to work immediately, and made a sally, and dispersed the
enemies' out-guards, and ran as far as the Roman camp itself, and pulled
the coverings of their tents to pieces, that were upon their banks, and
set fire to their works. And this was the manner in which he never left
off fighting, neither the next day, nor the day after it, but went on
with it for a considerable number of both days and nights.

18. Upon this, Vespasian, when he saw the Romans distressed