tly ungovernable; for when the enemy
had retired to their highest fastnesses, you ought to have restrained
yourselves, and not, by presenting yourselves at the top of the city, to
be exposed to dangers; but upon your having obtained the lower parts of
the city, you ought to have provoked those that had retired thither to
a safe and settled battle; whereas, in rushing so hastily upon victory,
you took no care of your safety. But this incautiousness in war, and
this madness of zeal, is not a Roman maxim. While we perform all that
we attempt by skill and good order, that procedure is the part of
barbarians, and is what the Jews chiefly support themselves by. We ought
therefore to return to our own virtue, and to be rather angry than any
longer dejected at this unlucky misfortune, and let every one seek for
his own consolation from his own hand; for by this means he will avenge
those that have been destroyed, and punish those that have killed them.
For myself, I will endeavor, as I have now done, to go first before
you against your enemies in every engagement, and to be the last that
retires from it."

7. So Vespasian encouraged his army by this speech; but for the people
of Gamala, it happened that they took courage for a little while, upon
such great and unaccountable success as they had had. But when they
considered with themselves that they had now no hopes of any terms of
accommodation, and reflecting upon it that they could not get away, and
that their provisions began already to be short, they were exceedingly
cast down, and their courage failed them; yet did they not neglect what
might be for their preservation, so far as they were able, but the most
courageous among them guarded those parts of the wall that were beaten
down, while the more infirm did the same to the rest of the wall that
still remained round the city. And as the Romans raised their banks, and
attempted to get into the city a second time, a great many of them fled
out of the city through impracticable valleys, where no guards were
placed, as also through subterraneous caverns; while those that were
afraid of being caught, and for that reason staid in the city, perished
for want of food; for what food they had was brought together from all
quarters, and reserved for the fighting men.

8. And these were the hard circumstances that the people of Gamala
were in. But now Vespasian went about other work by the by, during this
siege, and that was to subdu