Various portents had occurred at this time, but so
sunk in 13 superstition are the Jews
and so opposed to all religious practices that they
think it wicked to avert the threatened evil by sacrifices[516]
or vows. Embattled armies were seen to meet in
the sky with flashing arms, and the temple shone with
sudden fire from heaven. The doors of the shrine
suddenly opened, a supernatural voice was heard calling
the gods out, and at once there began a mighty movement
of departure. Few took alarm at all this.
Most people held the belief that, according to the
ancient priestly writings, this was the moment at
which the East was fated to prevail: they would
now start forth from Judaea and conquer the world.[517]
This enigmatic prophecy really applied to Vespasian
and Titus. But men are blinded by their hopes.
The Jews took to themselves the promised destiny, and
even defeat could not convince them of the truth.
The number of the besieged, men and women of every
age, is stated to have reached six hundred thousand.
There were arms for all who could carry them, and far
more were ready to fight than would be expected from
their total numbers. The women were as determined
as the men: if they were forced to leave their
homes they had more to fear in life than in death.
Such was the city and such the people with which Titus
was faced. As the nature of the ground forbade
a sudden assault, he determined to employ siege-works
and penthouse shelters. The work was accordingly
divided among the legions, and there was a truce to
fighting until they had got ready every means of storming
a town that had ever been devised by experience or
inventive ingenuity.
FOOTNOTES:
[460] A.D. 70.
[461] See ii. 4; iv. 51.
[462] XXII Deiotariana and
III Cyrenaica.
[463] Cp. ii. 4.
[464] There seems little to
recommend Tacitus’ theory of the
identity
of the Idaei and Judaei, though it has been suggested
that
the Cherethites of 2. Sam. viii. 18 and Ezek.
xxv. 16 are
Cretans,
migrated into the neighbourhood of the Philistines.
The
Jewish Sabbath (Saturn’s day) seems also to have
suggested
connexion
with Saturn and Crete.
[465] Elsewhere the Idaei
figure as supernatural genii in
attendance
on either Jupiter or Saturn.
[466] Ethiopian here means
Phoenician. Tradition made Cepheus,
the
father of Andromeda, king of Joppa.
[467] From Damascus, said
Justin, where Abraham was one of
their
kings, and Trogus Pompeius adds that the name of Abraham
was
honourably remembered at Damascus. These are variants
of
the
Biblical migration of Abraham.
[468] Il. vi. 184;
Od. v. 282.
[469] Another piece of fanciful
philology, based on a
misinterpretation
of a Greek transliteration of the name
Jerusalem.
The Solymi are traditionally placed in Lycia.
Both
Juvenal
and Martial use Solymus as equivalent to Judaeus.
Copyrights
Tacitus: The Histories, Volumes I and II from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.
