The fall of Jerusalem and the Roman conquest of Judea . m-mand of Titus. It consisted of four veteran legions, oftwenty cohorts of auxiliaries, of eight squadrons of cavalry,and of contingents supplied by tributary nations—80,000men in all, well armed, strictly disciplined, and abun-dantly provided with military munitions. The Zealots, who now reigned supreme in Jerusalem(after a series of hideous massacres, which had seemed toinvite the wrath of Grod now about to descend uponthe doomed city), could only oppose against this mightyforce—mighty not only in numbers but in cohesion—agarrison of 24
The fall of Jerusalem and the Roman conquest of Judea . m-mand of Titus. It consisted of four veteran legions, oftwenty cohorts of auxiliaries, of eight squadrons of cavalry,and of contingents supplied by tributary nations—80,000men in all, well armed, strictly disciplined, and abun-dantly provided with military munitions. The Zealots, who now reigned supreme in Jerusalem(after a series of hideous massacres, which had seemed toinvite the wrath of Grod now about to descend uponthe doomed city), could only oppose against this mightyforce—mighty not only in numbers but in cohesion—agarrison of 24,000 soldiers ; but these were supported bya multitude of irregular combatants, whose patrioticenthusiasm no hardships could quench, and who werealways ready to man the walls or sacrifice themselves insome desperate sally from the gates. But there was no unity of command in the unhappycity. The Zealots had divided into three factions, eachowning allegiance to a separate leader, and each occupy-ing a different part of Jerusalem : Eleazar held the. THE SJEOE. 69 Temple, and, nominally, the supreme authority; John ofGischala, with his Galilean robbers, the Lower City;and Simon, with 10,000 Jews and 6000 Idum^eans, theHill of Zion. Advancing from the north, the lloman commanderplanted his camp on a ridgecalled Scopus; while he detachedthe tenth legion to seize on theMount of Olives, both to preventthe escape of any portion of thepopulation, and to intercept suc-cours on the only side that theycould approach the city. It wasfrom this point that Titus ob-tained his first view of Jerusalem;and as it lay beneath him, radi-ant in the golden sunshine, withthe pinnacles of its Temple blaz- irrub. ing like fiery arrows, and the long lines of its windingstreets, and its many towers and massive ramparts, wecan w^ell believe that his soul was moved to admiration,—it may be, was even touched with a sentiment of awe! Thus, then, the Jews assembled at the last Passover inwhich the pascha
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookpublisherlondon, booksubjectkingsandrulers
