| 477 conversing with those on the wall. Rufus, an Egyptian, serving in the Roman army, a man of singular boddy [body] strength, watched the opportunity, rushed on him, and bore him off, armour [armor] and all, to the Roman camp. Bassus ordered the captive to be stripped, and scourged in the sight of the besieged. At the sufferings of their brave champion the whole city set up a wild wailing. Bassus, when he saw the effect of his barbarous measure, ordered a cross to be erected, as if for the execution of the gallant youth. The lamentations in the city became more loud and general. Eleazer's family was powerful and numerous. Through their influence it was agreed to surrender the citadel, on condition that Eleazer's life should be spared. The strangers in the lower town attempted to cut their way through the posts of the besiegers; a few of the bravest succeeded; of those who remained, 1700 perished. The treaty with the garrison was honourably [honorably] observed.
Bassus proceeded to surround the forest of Jardes, where a vast number of fugitives had taken refuge: they attempted to break through, but were repulsed, and 3000 put to the sword. During the course of these successes Bassus died, and Flavius Silva assumed the command in Palestine. Silva immediately marched against Masada, the only place which still held out. Masada was situated on the south-western side of the Dead Sea. Like the other hill fortresses of Palestine, it stood on a high rock, girt [girded] with a precipitous chasms, the side of which a goat could scarcely clamber. It was accessible only by two narrow and very difficult paths, from the east and from the west. On the east, a path, or rather a rocky stair, led up from the shore of the Dead Sea, called the Serpent, from its winding and circuitous course. It ran along the verge of frightful precipices, which made the head giddy to look down; it was necessary to climb step by step; if the foot slipped, instant death was inevitable. After winding in this manner nearly four miles, this path opened on a level space, on which Masada stood, in the midst of a small and highly cultivated plain of extraordinary beauty and fertility. The city was girt [girded] with a wall, nearly a mile in circuit. The wall was twenty-two feet high, fourteen broad, and had thirty-seven lofty towers. Besides this wall, Masada had a strong and magnificent palace, with sixty towers, built by Heron, on the western cliff, and connected, by an underground way, with the citadel. The western ascent was commaaded [commanded], in its narrowest part, by an impregnable tower.
The city was amply supplied with excellent water, and with provisions of all kinds, wine, oil, vegetables, and dates. According to the strange accoant [account] of Josephus, the air of Masada was of such a temperature, that, although some of these fruits had been laid up for a hundred years, since the time of Herod, they were still sound and fresh. There were likewise armories, sufficient to supply 10,000 men with great stores of unwrought iron, brass, and lead. In fact, Masada had been the fortress which Herod the Great had always looked to as a place of security, either in case of foreign invasion, or the revelt [revolt] of his own subjects. The town was now as sternly manned as fortified. Eleazer, the commander, was a descendant of Judas the Galilean, and inherited the principles of his ancestor in their sternest and most stubborn fanaticism. To yield to a foreign dominion was to him and his zealous associates the height of impiety: death was far preferable to a treacherous dereliction of the sovreignty [sovereignty] of God. They acted, to the end, up to their lofty tenets.
Silva, having blockaded the town, so that none could make their escape, seized a point of rock, called the White Promontory, to the westward. There he erected his works, a mound, 350 feet high, and above that a second bank of enormous stones; and at length he brought a battering ram to bear upon the walls. After long resistance, a breach was made; but the besieged had run up another wall within, of great timbers laid parallel with each other, in two separate rows, the intervening space being filled with earth; this sort of double artificial wall was held together by transverse beams, and the more violently it was battered it became more solid and compact by the yelding [yielding] of the earth.-Silva ordered his men to throw lighted brands upon it: the timbers speedily kindled, and the whole became a vast wall of fire. The north wind blew the flames into the faces of the besiegers, and the
(page 477) |
