a very sad sight there was on the following days over that
country; for as for the shores, they were full of shipwrecks, and of
dead bodies all swelled; and as the dead bodies were inflamed by the
sun, and putrefied, they corrupted the air, insomuch that the misery
was not only the object of commiseration to the Jews, but to those that
hated them, and had been the authors of that misery. This was the upshot
of the sea-fight. The number of the slain, including those that were
killed in the city before, was six thousand and five hundred.

10. After this fight was over, Vespasian sat upon his tribunal
at Taricheae, in order to distinguish the foreigners from the old
inhabitants; for those foreigners appear to have begun the war. So he
deliberated with the other commanders, whether he ought to save those
old inhabitants or not. And when those commanders alleged that the
dismission of them would be to his own disadvantage, because, when they
were once set at liberty, they would not be at rest, since they would be
people destitute of proper habitations, and would be able to compel such
as they fled to fight against us, Vespasian acknowledged that they did
not deserve to be saved, and that if they had leave given them to fly
away, they would make use of it against those that gave them that leave.
But still he considered with himself after what manner they should be
slain [8] for if he had them slain there, he suspected the people of the
country would thereby become his enemies; for that to be sure they would
never bear it, that so many that had been supplicants to him should
be killed; and to offer violence to them, after he had given them
assurances of their lives, he could not himself bear to do it. However,
his friends were too hard for him, and pretended that nothing against
Jews could be any impiety, and that he ought to prefer what was
profitable before what was fit to be done, where both could not be made
consistent. So he gave them an ambiguous liberty to do as they advised,
and permitted the prisoners to go along no other road than that which
led to Tiberias only. So they readily believed what they desired to be
true, and went along securely, with their effects, the way which was
allowed them, while the Romans seized upon all the road that led to
Tiberias, that none of them might go out of it, and shut them up in the
city. Then came Vespasian, and ordered them all to stand in the stadium,
and commanded them to kill the