go down it might not be able to hold his feet upon it. Next
to this, and before you come to the edifice of the tower itself, there
was a wall three cubits high; but within that wall all the space of the
tower of Antonia itself was built upon, to the height of forty cubits.
The inward parts had the largeness and form of a palace, it being parted
into all kinds of rooms and other conveniences, such as courts, and
places for bathing, and broad spaces for camps; insomuch that, by having
all conveniences that cities wanted, it might seem to be composed of
several cities, but by its magnificence it seemed a palace. And as the
entire structure resembled that of a tower, it contained also four other
distinct towers at its four corners; whereof the others were but fifty
cubits high; whereas that which lay upon the southeast corner was
seventy cubits high, that from thence the whole temple might be viewed;
but on the corner where it joined to the two cloisters of the temple,
it had passages down to them both, through which the guard [for there
always lay in this tower a Roman legion] went several ways among the
cloisters, with their arms, on the Jewish festivals, in order to watch
the people, that they might not there attempt to make any innovations;
for the temple was a fortress that guarded the city, as was the tower
of Antonia a guard to the temple; and in that tower were the guards of
those three [14]. There was also a peculiar fortress belonging to the
upper city, which was Herod's palace; but for the hill Bezetha, it was
divided from the tower Antonia, as we have already told you; and as that
hill on which the tower of Antonia stood was the highest of these three,
so did it adjoin to the new city, and was the only place that hindered
the sight of the temple on the north. And this shall suffice at present
to have spoken about the city and the walls about it, because I have
proposed to myself to make a more accurate description of it elsewhere.

CHAPTER 6.

Concerning The Tyrants Simon And John. How Also As Titus Was
Going Round The Wall Of This City Nicanor Was Wounded By A
Dart; Which Accident Provoked Titus To Press On The Siege.

1. Now the warlike men that were in the city, and the multitude of the
seditious that were with Simon, were ten thousand, besides the Idumeans.
Those ten thousand had fifty commanders, over whom this Simon was
supreme. The Idumeans that paid him homage were five thousand, and