The Fall of The City

Such was the horrible condition of the place when Titus and his army presented themselves, and encamped before Jerusalem; but, alas! not to deliver it from its miseries, but to fulfil the prediction, and vindicate the benevolent warning of our Lord: “When ye see (he had said to his disciples) the abomination of desolation, spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place,^[1] and Jerusalem surrounded by armies (or camps), then let those who are in the midst of Jerusalem depart and let not those who are in the country enter into her,” for “then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.”^[2]

These armies, we do not hesitate to affirm, were those of the Romans, who now invested the city. From the time of the Babylonian captivity, idolatry had been held as an abomination by the Jews. This national aversion was manifested even against the images of their gods and emperors, which the Roman armies carried in their standards; so that, in a time of peace, Pilate, and afterwards Vitellius, at the request of some eminent Jews, on this account avoided marching their forces through Judea. Of the desolating disposition which now governed the Roman army, the history of the Jewish war, and especially the final demolition of the holy city, presents an awful and signal example. Jerusalem was not captured merely, but, with its celebrated temple, laid in ruins. Lest, however, the army of Titus should not be sufficiently designated by this expression, our Lord adds, “Wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.”^[3]

The Jewish state, indeed, at this time, was fitly compared to a carcass. The sceptre of Judah, i. e. its civil and political authority, the life of its religion, and the glory of its temple, were departed. It was, in short, morally and judicially dead. The eagle, whose ruling instinct is rapine and murder, as fitly represented the fierce and sanguinary temper of the Romans, and, perhaps, might be intended to refer also to the principal figure on their ensigns, which, however obnoxious to the Jews, were at length planted in the midst of the holy city, and finally on the temple itself.

The day on which Titus encompassed Jerusalem was the feast of the passover; and it is deserving of the very particular attention of the reader, that this was the anniversary of that memorable period in which the Jews crucified their Messiah!

At this season multitudes came up from all the surrounding country, and from distant parts, to keep the festival. How suitable and how kind, then, was the prophetic admonition of our Lord, and how clearly he saw into futurity when he said, “Let not them that are in the countries enter into Jerusalem.”^[4] Nevertheless, the city was at that time crowded with Jewish strangers, and foreigners from all parts, so that the whole nation may be considered as having been shut up in one prison, preparatory to the execution of the Divine vengeance; and, according to Josephus, this event took place suddenly; thus, not only fulfilling the predictions of our Lord, that these calamities should come like the swift darting lightning “that cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west,” and “as a snare on all them (the Jews) who dwelt upon the face of the whole earth;“^[5] but justifying, also, his friendly direction, that those who fled from the place should use the utmost possible expedition.

On the appearance of the Roman army, the factious Jews united, and, rushing furiously out of the city, repulsed the tenth legion, which was with difficulty preserved. This event caused a short suspension of hostilities, and, by opening the gates, gave an opportunity to such as were so disposed to make their escape; which, before this, they could not have attempted without interruption, from the suspicion that they wished to revolt to the Romans. This success inspired the Jews with confidence, and they resolved to defend their city to the very uttermost; but it did not prevent the renewal of their civil broils. The faction under Eleazer having dispersed, and arranged themselves under the two other leaders, John and Simon, there ensued a scene of the most dreadful contention, plunder, and conflagration: the middle space of the city being burnt, and the wretched inhabitants made the prize of the contending parties.

The Romans at length gained possession of two of the three walls which defended the city, and fear once more united the factions. This pause to their fury had, however, scarcely begun, when famine made its ghastly appearance in the Jewish army. It had for some time been silently approaching, and many of the peaceful and the poor had already perished for want of necessaries. With this new calamity, strange to relate, the madness of the factions again returned, and the city presented a new picture of wretchedness. Impelled by the cravings of hunger, they snatched the staff of life out of each other’s hands, and many devoured the grain unprepared. Tortures were inflicted for the discovery of a handful of meal; women forced food from their husbands, and children from their fathers, and even mothers from their infants; and, while sucking children were wasting away in their arms, they scrupled not to take away the vital drops which sustained them! So justly did our Lord pronounce a wo on “them who should give suck in those days.^[6]“

This dreadful scourge at length drove multitudes of the Jews out of the city into the enemies’ camp, where the Romans crucified them in such numbers, that, as Josephus relates, space was wanted for the crosses, and crosses for the captives; and it having been discovered that some of them had swallowed gold, the Arabs and Syrians, who were incorporated in the Roman army, impelled by avarice, with unexampled cruelty, ripped open two thousand of the deserters in one night. Titus, touched by these calamities, in person entreated the Jews to surrender, but they answered him with revilings. Exasperated by their obstinacy and insolence, he now resolved to surround the city by a circumvallation,^[7] which, with astonishing activity, was effected by the soldiers in three days. Thus was fulfilled another of our Lord’s predictions, for he had said, while addressing this devoted city, “Thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round about, and keep thee in on every side.”^[8]

As no supplies whatever could now enter the walls, the famine rapidly extended itself, and, increasing in horror, devoured whole families. The tops of houses and the recesses of the city, were covered with the carcasses of women, children, and aged men. The young men appeared like spectres in the places of public resort, and fell down lifeless in the streets. The dead were too numerous to be interred, and many expired in the performance of this office. The public calamity was too great for lamentation. Silence, and, as it were, a black and deadly night overspread the city. But even such a scene could not awe the robbers; they spoiled the tombs, and stripped the dead of their grave-clothes, with an unfeeling and wild laughter. They tried the edges of their swords on their carcasses, and even on some that were yet breathing; while Simon Gioras chose this melancholy and awful period to manifest the deep malignity and cruelty of his nature, in the execution of the High Priest Matthias, and his three sons, whom he caused to be condemned as favourers of the Romans. The father, in consideration of his having opened the city gates to Simon, begged that he might be executed previously to his children; but the unfeeling tyrant gave orders that he should be dispatched in the last place, and in his expiring moments insultingly asked him, whether the Romans could then relieve him.

While the city was in this dismal situation, a Jew named Mannæus fled to Titus, and informed him, that from the beginning of the siege (14th April) to the first of July following, one hundred and fifteen thousand eight hundred and eighty dead bodies had been carried through one gate only, which he had guarded. This man had been appointed to pay the public allowance for carrying the bodies out, and was therefore obliged to register them. Soon after several respectable individuals deserted to the Romans, and assured Titus that the whole number of the poor who had been cast out at the different gates, was not less than six hundred thousand. The report of these calamities excited pity in the Romans, and in a particular manner affected Titus, who, while surveying the immense number of dead bodies which were piled up under the walls, raised his hands towards heaven, and, appealing to the Almighty, solemnly protested that he had not been the cause of these deplorable calamities; which, indeed, the Jews, by their unexampled wickedness, rebellion, and obstinacy, had brought down upon their own heads.

After this, Josephus, in the name of Titus, earnestly exhorted John and his adherents to surrender; but the insolent rebel returned nothing but reproaches and imprecations, declaring his firm persuasion that Jerusalem, as it was God’s own city, could never be taken: thus literally fulfilling the declaration of Micah, that the Jews, in their extremity, notwithstanding their crimes, would presumptuously “lean upon the Lord and say, ‘Is not the Lord among us? none evil can come upon us’.”^[9]

Meanwhile the horrors of famine grew still more melancholy and afflictive. The Jews, for want of food, were at length compelled to eat their belts, their sandals, the skins of their shields, dried grass, and even the ordure of oxen. In the depth of this horrible extremity, a Jewess of noble family, urged by the intolerable cravings of hunger, slew her infant child, and prepared it for a meal; and had actually eaten one half thereof, when the soldiers, allured by the smell of food, threatened her with instant death if she refused to discover it. Intimidated by this menace, she immediately produced the remains of her son, which petrified them with horror. At the recital of this melancholy and affecting occurrence, the whole city stood aghast, and poured forth their congratulations on those whom death had hurried away from such heart-rending scenes. Indeed, humanity at once shudders and sickens at the narration, nor can any one of the least sensibility reflect upon the pitiable condition to which the female part of the inhabitants of Jerusalem must at this time have been reduced, without experiencing the tenderest emotions of sympathy, or refrain from tears while he reads our Saviour’s pathetic address to the women who “bewailed him” as he was led to Calvary, wherein he evidently refers to these very calamities: “Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but for yourselves and for your children; for, behold, the days are coming in which they shall say, ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bear, and the breasts that never gave suck’.”^[10]

The above melancholy fact was also literally foretold by Moses: “The tender and delicate woman among you (said he, addressing Israel) who would not venture to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil . . . toward her young one . . . which she shall bear,” and “eat for want of all things, secretly, in the siege and straitness wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates.“^[11] This prediction was partially fulfilled, when Samaria, the capital of the revolted tribes, was besieged by Benhadad; and afterwards at Jerusalem, previously to its capture by Nebuchadnezzar; but its exact and literal accomplishment, in relation to a lady of rank, delicately and voluptuously educated, was reserved for the period of which we are now speaking.

And it deserves particular regard, as a circumstance which very greatly enhances the importance of this prophecy, that the history of the world does not record that a parallel instance of unnatural barbarity ever occurred during the siege of any other place, in any other age or nation whatsoever. Indeed, Josephus himself declares that, if there had not been many credible witnesses of the fact, he would not have recorded it, “because,” as he remarks, “such a shocking violation of nature never having been perpetrated by any Greek or barbarian,” the insertion of it might have diminished the credibility of his history.

While famine continued thus to spread its destructive rage through the city, the Romans, after many ineffectual attempts, at length succeeded in demolishing part of the inner wall, possessed themselves of the great tower of Antonia, and advanced towards the temple, which Titus, in a council of war, had determined to preserve as an ornament to the empire, and as a monument of his success; but the Almighty had determined otherwise; for now, in the revolution of ages, was arrived that fatal day,^[12] emphatically called a “day of vengeance^[13],” on which the temple had formerly been destroyed by the king of Babylon. A Roman soldier, urged, as he declared, by a divine impulse, regardless of the command of Titus climbed on the shoulders of another, and threw a flaming brand into the golden window of the temple, which instantly set the building on fire. The Jews, anxious above all things to save that sacred edifice, in which they superstitiously trusted for security, with a dreadful outcry, rushed in to extinguish the flames. Titus also, being informed of the conflagration, hastened to the spot in his chariot, attended by his principal officers and legions; but in vain he waved his hand and raised his voice, commanding his soldiers to extinguish the fire; so great was the uproar and confusion, that no attention was paid even to him.

The Romans, wilfully deaf, instead of extinguishing the flames, spread them wider and wider. Actuated by the fiercest impulses of rancour and revenge against the Jews, they rushed furiously upon them, slaying some with the sword, trampling others under their feet, or crushing them to death against the walls. Many, falling amongst the smoking ruins of the porches and galleries, were suffocated. The unarmed poor, and even sick persons, were slaughtered without mercy. Of these unhappy people numbers were left weltering in their gore. Multitudes of the dead and dying were heaped round about the altar, to which they had formerly fled for protection, while the steps that led from it into the outer court were literally deluged with their blood.

Finding it impossible to restrain the impetuosity and cruelty of his soldiers, the commander in chief proceeded, with some of his superior officers, to take a survey of those parts of the edifice which were still uninjured by the conflagration. It had not, at this time, reached the inner temple, which Titus entered, and viewed with silent admiration. Struck with the magnificence of its decorations, which even surpassed the report of fame concerning them; and perceiving that the sanctuary had not yet caught fire, he redoubled his efforts to stop the progress of the flames. He condescended even to intreat his soldiers to exert all their strength and activity for this purpose, and appointed a centurion of the guards to punish them, if they again disregarded him; but all was in vain. The delirious rage of the soldiery knew no bounds. Eager for plunder and for slaughter, they alike condemned the solicitations and the menaces of their general. Even while he was thus intent upon the preservation of the sanctuary, one of the soldiers was actually employed in setting fire to the door posts, which caused the conflagration to become general. Titus and his officers were now compelled to retire, and none remained to check the fury of the soldiers or the flames.

The Romans, exasperated to the highest pitch against the Jews, seized every person whom they could find, and, without the least regard to sex, age, or quality, first plundered, and then slew them. The old and the young, the common people and the priests, those who surrendered and those who resisted, were equally involved in this horrible and indiscriminate carnage. Meanwhile the temple continued burning, until at length, vast as was its size, the flames completely enveloped the whole building; which, from the extent of the conflagration, impressed the distant spectator with an idea that the whole city was now on fire. The tumult and disorder which ensued upon this event it is impossible (says Josephus) for language to describe.

The Roman legions made the most horrid outcries; the rebels, finding themselves exposed to the fury of both fire and sword, screamed dreadfully; while the unhappy people who were pent up between the enemy and the flames, deplored their situation in the most pitiable complaints. Those on the hill and those in the city seemed mutually to return the groans of each other. Such as were expiring through famine, were revived by this scene, and seemed to acquire new spirits to deplore their misfortunes. The lamentations from the city were re-echoed from the adjacent mountains, and places beyond Jordan. The flames which enveloped the temple were so violent and impetuous, that the lofty hill on which it stood appeared, even from its deep foundation, as one large fire. The blood of the sufferers flowed in proportion to the rage of this destructive element; and the number of the slain exceeded all calculation. The ground could not be seen for the dead bodies, over which the Romans trampled in pursuit of the fugitives; while the crackling noise of the devouring flames, mingled with the clangour of arms, the groans of the dying, and the shrieks of despair, augmented the tremendous horror of a scene, to which the pages of history can furnish no parallel.

Amongst the tragical events which at this time occurred, the following is more particularly deserving of notice: a false prophet, pretending to a divine commission, affirmed, that if the people would repair to the temple, they should behold signs of their speedy deliverance. Accordingly, about six thousand persons, chiefly women and children, assembled in a gallery, that was yet standing, on the outside of the building. Whilst they waited in anxious expectation of the promised miracle, the Romans, with the most wanton barbarity, set fire to the gallery; from which, multitudes, rendered frantic by their horrible situation, precipitated themselves on the ruins below, and were killed by the fall; while, awful to relate, the rest, without a single exception, perished in the flames. So necessary was our Lord’s second premonition not to give credit to “false prophets,” who should pretend to show “great signs and wonders.” In this last caution, as the connection of the prophecy demonstrates, he evidently refers to the period of the siege, but, in the former, to the interval immediately preceding the Jewish war.^[14]

The temple now presented little more than a heap of ruins; and the Roman army, as in triumph on the event, came and reared the ensigns against a fragment of the eastern gate, and, with sacrifices of thanksgiving, proclaimed the imperial majesty of Titus, with every possible demonstration of joy.

Thus terminated the glory and the existence of this sacred and venerable edifice, which, from its stupendous size, its massy solidity, and astonishing strength, seemed formed to resist the most violent operations of human force, and to stand, like the pyramids, amid the shocks of successive ages, until the final dissolution of the globe.^[15]

For five days after the destruction of the temple, the priests who had escaped, sat, pining with hunger, on the top of one of its broken walls; at length, through necessity, they came down and humbly asked the pardon of Titus, which, however, he refused to grant them, saying, that, “as the temple, for the sake of which he would have spared them, was destroyed, it was but fit that its priests should perish also;”—whereupon he commanded that they should be put to death.

The leaders of the factions being now pressed on all sides, begged a conference with Titus, who offered to spare their lives, provided that they would lay down their arms. With this reasonable condition, however, they refused to comply; upon which Titus, exasperated by their obstinacy, resolved that he would hereafter grant no pardon to the insurgents, and ordered a proclamation to be made to this effect. The Romans had now full licence to ravage and destroy. Early the following morning they set fire to the castle, the register-office, the council-chamber, and the palace of queen Helena; and then spread themselves throughout the city, slaughtering wherever they came, and burning the dead bodies which were scattered over every street, and on the floors of almost every house. In the royal palace, where immense treasures were deposited, the seditious Jews murdered eight thousand four hundred of their own nation, and afterwards plundered their property. Prodigious numbers of deserters, also, who escaped from the tyrants, and fled into the enemies’ camp, were slain. The soldiers, however, at length, weary of killing, and satiated with the blood which they had spilt, laid down their swords, and sought to gratify their avarice. For this purpose they took the Jews, together with their wives and families, and publicly sold them like cattle in a market, but at a very low price; for multitudes were exposed to sale, while the purchasers were few in number. And now were fulfilled the words of Moses: “And ye shall be sold for bond-men and bond-women, and no man shall buy you^[16].”

The Romans having become masters of the lower city, set it on fire. The Jews now fled to the higher, from whence, their pride and insolence yet unabated, they continued to exasperate their enemies, and even appeared to view the burning of the town below them with tokens of pleasure. In a short time, however, the walls of the higher city were demolished by the Roman engines, and the Jews, lately so haughty and presumptuous, now trembling and panic-struck, fell on their faces, and deplored their own infatuation. Such as were in the towers deemed impregnable to human force, beyond measure affrighted, strangely forsook them, and sought refuge in caverns and subterranean passages; in which dismal retreats no less than two thousand dead bodies were afterwards found. Thus, as our Lord had predicted, did these miserable creatures, in effect, say, “to the mountains, ‘Fall on us;’ and to the rocks, ‘Cover us‘.^[17]”

The walls of the city being now completely in possession of the Romans, they hoisted their colours upon the towers, and burst forth into the most triumphant acclamations. After this, all annoyance from the Jews being at an end, the soldiers gave an unbridled license to their fury against the inhabitants. They first plundered, and then set fire to the houses. They ranged through the streets with drawn swords in their hands, murdering every Jew whom they met without distinction; until, at length, the bodies of the dead choaked up all the alleys and narrow passes, while their blood literally flowed down the channels of the city in streams. As it drew towards evening, the soldiers exchanged the sword for the torch, and amidst the darkness of this awful night, set fire to the remaining divisions of the place. The vial of divine wrath which had been so long pouring out upon this devoted city, was now emptying, and Jerusalem; once “a praise in all the earth,” and the subject of a thousand prophecies, deprived of the staff of life, wrapt in flames, and bleeding on every side, sunk into utter ruin and desolation.^[18]

1. Not only was the temple and mountain on which it stood accounted holy, but also the whole city of Jerusalem, and several furlongs of land round about it. Vide Neh. 11:1; Isaiah 53:1; Daniel 9:24; and Matt. 27:53. (↩)
2. Matt. 24:15,21; Luke 21:20,21. (↩)
3. Matt. 24:28. (↩)
4. Luke 21:22. (↩)
5. Matt. 24:27; and Luke 21:35. (↩)
6. Matt. 24:19. (↩)
7. This trench was thirty-nine furlongs in circuit, and strengthened with thirteen towers. (↩)
8. Luke 19:43.(↩)
9. Micah 3:11. (↩)
10. Luke 23:29. (↩)
11. Deut. 28:56,57. (↩)
12. The 10th of August. (↩)
13. Luke 21:22.(↩)
14. Matt. 24 Compare verses 5, and 23, 24, 25, 26.(↩)
15. From its first foundation by king Solomon, until its destruction under Vespasian, were one thousand and thirty years, seven months, and fifteen days: and from its re-erection by Haggai, to the same period, six hundred and thirty-nine years, and forty-five days. It has been already hinted, that, by a very singular coincidence, it was now reduced to ashes in the same month and on the same day of the month, on which it had formerly been burnt by the Babylonians. These two eras are distinguished by another extraordinary coincidence, which Josephus, in one of his addresses to the Jews, pointed out to them as one of the signs which foreboded the destruction of their city. “The fountains,” said he, “flow copiously for Titus, which to you were dried up; for before he came, you know that both Siloam failed, and all the springs without the city, so that water was brought by the amphora;* but now they are so abundant to your enemies, as to suffice, not only for themselves and their cattle, but also for their gardens. This wonder you also formerly experienced when the king of Babylon laid siege to your city.” *A vessel containing about seven gallons. (↩)
16. Deut. 28:68. (↩)
17. Luke 23:30. (↩)
18. This memorable siege terminated on the 8th day of September, A.D. 70: its duration was nearly five months, the Romans having invested the city on the 14th day of the preceding April. (↩)