the iron plates about them made it very hard to come at
them by fire, they ran away from the walls, and fled hastily out of the
city, and fell upon those that shot at them. And thus did the people of
Jotapata resist the Romans, while a great number of them were every day
killed, without their being able to retort the evil upon their enemies;
nor could they keep them out of the city without danger to themselves.

31. About this time it was that Vespasian sent out Trajan against a city
called Japha, that lay near to Jotapata, and that desired innovations,
and was puffed up with the unexpected length of the opposition of
Jotapata. This Trajan was the commander of the tenth legion, and to him
Vespasian committed one thousand horsemen, and two thousand footmen.
When Trajan came to the city, he found it hard to be taken, for besides
the natural strength of its situation, it was also secured by a double
wall; but when he saw the people of this city coming out of it, and
ready to fight him, he joined battle with them, and after a short
resistance which they made, he pursued after them; and as they fled to
their first wall, the Romans followed them so closely, that they fell
in together with them: but when the Jews were endeavoring to get again
within their second wall, their fellow citizens shut them out, as being
afraid that the Romans would force themselves in with them. It was
certainly God therefore who brought the Romans to punish the Galileans,
and did then expose the people of the city every one of them manifestly
to be destroyed by their bloody enemies; for they fell upon the gates in
great crowds, and earnestly calling to those that kept them, and that
by their names also, yet had they their throats cut in the very midst of
their supplications; for the enemy shut the gates of the first wall, and
their own citizens shut the gates of the second, so they were enclosed
between two walls, and were slain in great numbers together; many of
them were run through by swords of their own men, and many by their own
swords, besides an immense number that were slain by the Romans. Nor
had they any courage to revenge themselves; for there was added to the
consternation they were in from the enemy, their being betrayed by their
own friends, which quite broke their spirits; and at last they died,
cursing not the Romans, but their own citizens, till they were all
destroyed, being in number twelve thousand. So Trajan gathered that the
cit