ll yield to these blows, excepting where the battering ram of
the fifteenth legion moved the corner of a tower, while the wall itself
continued unhurt; for the wall was not presently in the same danger with
the tower, which was extant far above it; nor could the fall of that
part of the tower easily break down any part of the wall itself together
with it.

5. And now the Jews intermitted their sallies for a while; but when they
observed the Romans dispersed all abroad at their works, and in their
several camps, [for they thought the Jews had retired out of weariness
and fear,] they all at once made a sally at the tower Hippicus, through
an obscure gate, and at the same time brought fire to burn the works,
and went boldly up to the Romans, and to their very fortifications
themselves, where, at the cry they made, those that were near them came
presently to their assistance, and those farther off came running after
them; and here the boldness of the Jews was too hard for the good order
of the Romans; and as they beat those whom they first fell upon, so they
pressed upon those that were now gotten together. So this fight about
the machines was very hot, while the one side tried hard to set them
on fire, and the other side to prevent it; on both sides there was a
confused cry made, and many of those in the forefront of the battle
were slain. However, the Jews were now too hard for the Romans, by the
furious assaults they made like madmen; and the fire caught hold of the
works, and both all those works, and the engines themselves, had been in
danger of being burnt, had not many of these select soldiers that came
from Alexandria opposed themselves to prevent it, and had they not
behaved themselves with greater courage than they themselves supposed
they could have done; for they outdid those in this fight that had
greater reputation than themselves before. This was the state of things
till Caesar took the stoutest of his horsemen, and attacked the enemy,
while he himself slew twelve of those that were in the forefront of the
Jews; which death of these men, when the rest of the multitude saw, they
gave way, and he pursued them, and drove them all into the city, and
saved the works from the fire. Now it happened at this fight that a
certain Jew was taken alive, who, by Titus's order, was crucified before
the wall, to see whether the rest of them would be aftrighted, and
abate of their obstinacy. But after the Jews were retired, Jo