Imatges de pàgina
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"Reflect, likewise, that even were you contending with no formidable foe, the uncompromising character of your worship would create a difficulty, since those very laws by which you mainly hope to secure the Divine assistance will, if you are compelled to transgress them, render God your enemy; since, should you observe the usages of the Sabbath, and put your hand to no work, you will fall an easy prey, as did your forefathers to Pompey, who pressed his operations with the greatest vigor on those days upon which the besieged rested.

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"Unless indeed it be supposed that you will wage war by compact; and that the Romans, when triumphant, will act toward you with moderation, and not, as an example to other nations, burn the Holy City to the ground, and root you out as a people from the earth. For those of you who may survive will not find a spot to flee to, since all have acknowledged the supremacy of the Romans, or fear that they soon must do so. The danger, however, threatens not us alone, but those also who reside in the other cities. For there is not a nation in the world where some of you are not to be found; all of whom, should you go to war, will be sacrificed in retaliation by your adversaries.

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"Look with pity, then, if not on your children and wives, yet on this your metropolis, and the sacred boundaries. Spare the Temple, and preserve for yourselves this sanctuary with its holy things."

Having spoken thus, he wept, as did his sister; and their emotion restrained in a great degree the violence of the people, who cried out that they had not taken up arms against the Romans, but to avenge their sufferings on Florus.

Traill's Translation.

JOSEPHUS'S SURRENDER TO THE ROMANS

From the Jewish Wars'

HILE Josephus was hesitating as to Nicanor's persuasions,

WHILE his nightly dreams, wherein God had foreshown

to him the approaching calamities of the Jews, and what would befall the Roman sovereigns, occurred to him. As an interpreter of dreams he had the art of collecting the meaning of things delivered ambiguously by the Deity; nor was he unacquainted with the prophecies of the Sacred Books, being himself

a priest, and a descendant of priests. Being at that moment under a divine influence, and suddenly recalling the fearful images of his recent dreams, he addressed to God a secret prayer, and said: "Since it seems good to thee, who didst found the Jewish nation, now to level it with the dust, and transfer all its fortune to the Romans, and since thou hast chosen my spirit to foretell future events, I surrender willingly to the Romans, and live: appealing to thee that I go over to them not as a traitor, but as thy minister."

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But when the Jews who had there taken refuge along with him understood that he was yielding, cried out:-"Deeply may our paternal laws groan! And well may God, who planted in the Jewish breast a soul that despises death, hide his face in indignation! Is life so dear to thee, Josephus, that thou canst endure to see the light in slavery? How soon hast thou forgotten thyself! How many hast thou persuaded to die for liberty! False then indeed has been thy reputation for manliness, as well as for intelligence, if thou canst hope for safety from those whom thou hast so strenuously opposed, or consent to accept deliverance at their hands, even were it certain! But though the fortune of the Romans has poured over thee some strange forgetfulness of thyself, we must take care of our country's glory. We will provide thee with right hand and sword. If thou diest voluntarily, thou shalt die as general of the Jews."

Josephus, fearing an outbreak,

proceeded to reason

with them philosophically respecting the emergency:

"Why, my comrades, should we so thirst for our own blood? or why do we set at variance such fond companions as soul and body? Who says that I am changed? But the Romans know whether this is true. It is honorable, I admit, to die in war; but only by the law of war,- that is, by the act of the victors. Did I then shun the Roman blades, worthy indeed should I be of my own sword and my own hand. But if pity for an enemy enter their breasts, how much more justly should pity for ourselves enter ours! For it is the extreme of folly to do that to ourselves, to avoid which we quarrel with others. . But some one will urge the dread of servitude. We are now, forsooth, perfectly free! Another will say that it is noble to destroy oneself. Far from it—but most ignoble! just as I would deem that pilot most dastardly, who dreading a tempest, voluntarily sinks his

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ship ere the storm sets in. But further: suicide is alien to the common nature of all animals, and an impiety against God who created us. Nor indeed is there any living creature that dies premeditatedly, or by its own act; for nature's law is strong in all the wish to live. For this reason also, those who attempt overtly to deprive us of life we account enemies; and those who attempt it clandestinely, we punish.

"Do you not think that God is indignant when man treats his gift with contempt? From him we have received our existence; and the period when we are no longer to exist, we refer to his will. Our bodies indeed are mortal to all, and composed of corruptible materials; but the soul, always immortal, and a portion of the Deity, dwells in those bodies. Now, should any one destroy or misapply what is deposited with him by man, he is esteemed wicked and faithless; and should any one cast out from his body what has been there deposited by God, do we suppose that he will elude Him whom he has wronged?

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"I pray however that this may prove a faithless stratagem of the Romans; for if, after an assurance of protection, I perish by their hands, I shall die cheerfully, carrying with me their perfidy and falsehood-a consolation greater than victory."

Josephus, having thus escaped in the war with the Romans, as in that with his friends, was conducted to Vespasian by Nica

nor.

Josephus intimated that he wished to speak in private to him; and Vespasian having removed all except his son Titus and two of his friends, Josephus addressed him in these words: “You think, Vespasian, that you have possessed yourself merely of a captive in Josephus; but I come to you as a messenger of greater things. Had I not received a commission from God, I knew the law of the Jews, and how it becomes a general to die. Do you send me to Nero? Wherefore? Are there any remaining to succeed Nero, previous to your own accession? You, Vespasian, are Cæsar and emperor — you, and this your son. Bind me then the more securely, and keep me for yourself. For you, Cæsar, are master not only of me, but of sea and land, and of the whole human race. And I deserve the punishment of stricter ward if I talk lightly, especially in a matter pertaining to God."

Traill's Translation.

THE DESTRUCTION OF THE TEMPLE AT JERUSALEM

W

From the Jewish Wars'

HILE the sanctuary [in Jerusalem] was in flames, everything that fell in their way became a prey to rapine, and prodigious was the slaughter of those found there. To no age was pity shown, to no rank respect; but children and old men, secular persons and priests, were overwhelmed in one com. mon ruin. All ranks were inclosed in the embrace of war, and hunted down; as well those who sued for mercy, as those who made defense.

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Their destruction was caused by a false prophet, who had on that day proclaimed to those remaining in the city, that "God commanded them to go up to the Temple, there to receive the signs of their deliverance." Thus it was that the impostors and pretended messengers of heaven at that time beguiled the wretched people, while the manifest portents that foreshowed the approaching desolation they neither heeded nor credited; but as if confounded and bereft alike of eyes and mind, they disregarded the immediate warnings of God. Thus it was when a star resembling a sword stood over the city, and a comet which continued for a year. Thus also it was when, prior to the revolt and the first movements of the war, at the time when the people were assembling for the feast of unleavened bread, on the eighth of the month Xanthicus, at the ninth hour of the night, so vivid a light shone round the altar and the sanctuary that it seemed to be bright day; and this lasted half an hour. By the inexperienced this was deemed favorable; but by the sacred scribes it was at once pronounced a prelude of that which afterwards happened. At the same festival also, a cow having been led by some one to the sacrifice, brought forth a lamb in the midst of the court of the Temple.

Moreover, the eastern gate of the inner court-which was of brass and extremely massive, and when closed towards evening could scarcely be moved by twenty men, and which was fastened with bars shod with iron, and secured by bolts sunk to a great depth in a threshold which consisted of one stone throughoutwas observed, about the sixth hour of the night, to have opened of its own accord. The guards of the Temple ran and informed the captain, who having repaired to the spot could scarcely

succeed in shutting it. This again to the unlearned seemed a most auspicious omen; for God, they thought, had unfolded to them the gate of blessings: but the learned considered that the security of the Temple was dissolving of its own accord, and the gate opened for the advantage of the enemy; and explained it among themselves as a sign of impending desolation.

Not many days after the festival, on the twenty-first of the month Artemisius, there appeared a phenomenon so marvelous as to exceed credibility. What I am about to relate would, I conceive, be deemed a mere fable, had it not been related by eyewitnesses, and attended by calamities commensurate with such portents. Before sunset, were seen around the whole country chariots poised in the air, and armed battalions speeding through the clouds and investing the cities. And at the feast which is called Pentecost, the priests having entered the inner court of the Temple by night, as was their custom, for discharge of their ministrations, their attention was drawn at first, they said, by a movement and a clanging noise, and after this by a voice as of a multitude, "We are departing hence."

But a story more fearful still remains. Four years prior to the war, while the city was enjoying the utmost peace and prosperity, there came to the feast in which it is the custom for all to erect tabernacles to God, one Jesus, son of Ananus, a rustic of humble parentage, who, standing in the temple, suddenly began to call aloud, "A voice from the east, a voice from the west, a voice from the four winds; a voice against Jerusalem and the sanctuary, a voice against bridegrooms and brides, a voice against all the people!" Day and night he traversed all the streets with this cry. Some citizens, incensed at so ominous a voice, apprehended the man, and severely scourged him. But without uttering a word in his own behalf, nor anything privately to those who beat him, he continued his cry as before. At length the rulers- supposing, and justly so, that the man was under some supernatural impulse-conducted him to the presence of the Roman procurator, where, though lacerated with scourges to the very bone, he neither sued for mercy nor shed a tear; but modulating his voice to a tone the most mournful that was possible, repeated at every stroke, "Woe! woe! unto Jerusalem."

the procurator, demanding who he was, and whence, and why he uttered these words, he made no manner of reply; desisting not from his lamentation over the city, until Albinus, concluding that

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