I.
Eiusdem anni principio Caesar Titus, perdomandae Iudaeae delectus a patre et privatis utriusque rebus militia clarus, maiore tum vi famaque agebat, certantibus provinciarum et exercituum studiis. Atque ipse, ut super fortunam crederetur, decorum se promptumque in armis ostendebat, comitate et adloquiis officia provocans ac plerumque in opere, in agmine gregario militi mixtus, incorrupto ducis honore. Tres eum in Iudaea legiones, quinta et decima et quinta decima, vetus Vespasiani miles, excepere. Addidit e Syria duodecimam et adductos Alexandria duoetvicensimanos tertianosque; comitabantur viginti sociae cohortes, octo equitum alae, simul Agrippa Sohaemusque reges et auxilia regis Antiochi validaque et solito inter accolas odio infensa Iudaeis Arabum manus, multi quos urbe atque Italia sua quemque spes acciverat occupandi principem adhuc vacuum. His cum copiis finis hostium ingressus composito agmine, cuncta explorans paratusque decernere, haud procul Hierosolymis castra facit.
1.
At the outset of the same year, Titus Caesar, who had been chosen by his father to bring to term the subjugation of Judaea, and who had already gained distinction in the army when both he and his father were still private citizens, was then adding to his power and fame, as armies outdid one another in their devotion to him. On his part, in the desire to be thought greater than his fortune, he conducted himself with dignity and decisiveness under arms. Gracious and accessible, he fostered compliance in others; he was often among the common soldiers, while engaged in operations or on the march, without loss of prestige as commander. Three legions welcomed him when he arrived in Judea, the Fifth, the Tenth, and the Fifteenth, Vespasian’s old troops. To these he adjoined the Twelfth from Syria and the soldiers of the Twenty-second and Third he had brought with him fom Alexandria. Accompanying this force of Roman infantry were twenty allied cohorts, eight cavalry squadrons, the kings Agrippa and Sohaemus, the reinforcements sent by king Antiochus, a strong body of Arabs, whose chronic hate, usual between neighbors, made hostile to the Jews, and many others who had left Rome and Italy in the hope of ingratiating themselves with a prince whose favor was not yet engaged. It is with such forces that he entered Judea, advancing in good order, sending out scouts everywhere, ready to engage. At a short distance from Jerusalem he set up camp.
II.
Sed quoniam famosae urbis supremum diem tradituri sumus, congruens videtur primordia eius aperire. Iudaeos Creta insula profugos novissima Libyae insedisse memorant, qua tempestate Saturnus vi Iovis pulsus cesserit regnis. Argumentum e nomine petitur: inclutum in Creta Idam montem, accolas Idaeos aucto in barbarum cognomento Iudaeos vocitari. Quidam regnante Iside exundantem per Aegyptum multitudinem ducibus Hierosolymo ac Iuda proximas in terras exoneratam; plerique Aethiopum prolem, quos rege Cepheo metus atque odium mutare sedis perpulerit. Sunt qui tradant Assyrios convenas, indigum agrorum populum, parte Aegypti potitos, mox proprias urbis Hebraeasque terras et propiora Syriae coluisse. Clara alii Iudaeorum initia, Solymos, carminibus Homeri celebratam gentem, conditae urbi Hierosolyma nomen e suo fecisse.
2.
But since I am about to recount the last moments of this celebrated city, it stands to reason that I should unveil first its origins. They say that the Jews were refugees from the island of Crete, who had settled in the farthest regions of Lybia at the time Saturn was forced out of power by Jupiter. The proof is derived from their name: there is a famous mountain in Crete called Ida and the people living nearby, the Idaei, came to be referred to as Judaei, the foreign and lengthened equivalent of their name. Some [claim] that during the reign of Isis the sprawling population of Egypt had spilled into neighboring lands, led by Hierosolymus and Judas. A large number think the Jews were of Ethiopian descent, whom under king Cepheus, fear and hatred had forced into exile. There are others who affirm they were Assyrian immigrants, people without land, who had first occupied a part of Egypt, then had their own cities and lived in the lands inhabited by Hebrews as well as in the districts of Syria next to them. According to others still, the Jews are the issue of a famous heritage, the ancient Solymi — a people celebrated in Homer’s poems — who founded a city and named it Hierosolyma after themselves.
III.
Plurimi auctores consentiunt orta per Aegyptum tabe quae corpora foedaret, regem Bocchorim adito Hammonis oraculo remedium petentem purgare regnum et id genus hominum ut invisum deis alias in terras avehere iussum. Sic conquisitum collectumque vulgus, postquam vastis locis relictum sit, ceteris per lacrimas torpentibus, Moysen unum exulum monuisse ne quam deorum hominumve opem expectarent utrisque deserti, sed sibimet duce caelesti crederent, primo cuius auxilio praesentis miserias pepulissent. Adsensere atque omnium ignari fortuitum iter incipiunt. Sed nihil aeque quam inopia aquae fatigabat, iamque haud procul exitio totis campis procubuerant, cum grex asinorum agrestium e pastu in rupem nemore opacam concessit. Secutus Moyses coniectura herbidi soli largas aquarum venas aperit. Id levamen; et continuum sex dierum iter emensi septimo pulsis cultoribus obtinuere terras, in quis urbs et templum dicata.
3.
Most writers agree that when a disfiguring contagion broke out in Egypt, king Bocchoris consulted the oracle of Ammon to ask for a remedy and was ordered to purify his kingdom and to remove to other lands, as hateful to the gods, this race of men. So the Hebrews were sought out and collected, then forsaken in the desert. While the rest of the exiles abandoned themselves to the apathy of grief, one of them, named Moses, warned them they were to wait for help neither from the gods nor from men, since both had spurned them. Instead they were to put faith in themselves and to view as their guide sent from heaven the first man by whose help they would fend off their present miseries. They agreed with him and all set out on their journey into the unknown. The worst torment was the scarcity of water and soon they were near death and falling to the ground in all parts of the plain, when a herd of wild asses returning from grazing retired to a boulder shaded by a grove. Moses followed and from the grass covering the soil first guessed then discovered large veins of water. This saved them and after a continuous march of six days, on the seventh they took possession of a territory by driving out its inhabitants, founded a city, and dedicated a temple.
IV.
Moyses quo sibi in posterum gentem firmaret, novos ritus contrariosque ceteris mortalibus indidit. Profana illic omnia quae apud nos sacra, rursum concessa apud illos quae nobis incesta. Effigiem animalis, quo monstrante errorem sitimque depulerant, penetrali sacravere, caeso ariete velut in contumeliam Hammonis; bos quoque immolatur, quoniam Aegyptii Apin colunt. Sue abstinent memoria cladis, quod ipsos scabies quondam turpaverat, cui id animal obnoxium. Longam olim famem crebris adhuc ieiuniis fatentur, et raptarum frugum argumentum panis Iudaicus nullo fermento detinetur. Septimo die otium placuisse ferunt, quia is finem laborum tulerit; dein blandiente inertia septimum quoque annum ignaviae datum. Alii honorem eum Saturno haberi, seu principia religionis tradentibus Idaeis, quos cum Saturno pulsos et conditores gentis accepimus, seu quod de septem sideribus, quis mortales reguntur, altissimo orbe et praecipua potentia stella Saturni feratur, ac pleraque caelestium viam suam et cursus septenos per numeros commeare.
4.
To secure a lasting authority over his nation, Moses gave it new religious observances, in complete contrast to those of other people. All that is sacred to us is profane in the eyes of the Jews. Conversely, all that is abominable to us, is permissible with them. The effigy of the animal that had shown the way, thereby relieving their thirst and ending their wandering, they consecrated in a shrine, with the sacrifice of a ram, as if in derision of Ammon. They immolate bulls as well, because the Egyptians honor the animal as Apis. They abstain from eating pork in memory of the scourge [in Egypt], since leprosy, to which pigs are susceptible, had once defiled them. Frequent fasts are their present acknowledgment of the long famine they had formerly suffered and the unleavened Jewish bread is a symbol of the eager haste with which they had to grab hold of food to take into exile. They say the Jews had chosen to rest on the seventh day because it marked the end of their toilsome wandering. Later, when idleness became attractive, the seventh year also was reserved for leisure. Others say they keep the seventh day for Saturn, either because the first rudiments of their religion were handed down by the Idaei, who, we are told, were driven out at the same time as Saturn and founded the Jewish nation, or because Saturn is borne in the highest of the orbits of the seven stars by which mortals are governed and its influence is preponderant. Besides, most of the celestial bodies travel their orbital course in cycles of seven years or multiples thereof.
V.
Hi ritus quoquo modo inducti antiquitate defenduntur: cetera instituta, sinistra foeda, pravitate valuere. Nam pessimus quisque spretis religionibus patriis tributa et stipes illuc congerebant, unde auctae Iudaeorum res, et quia apud ipsos fides obstinata, misericordia in promptu, sed adversus omnis alios hostile odium. Separati epulis, discreti cubilibus, proiectissima ad libidinem gens, alienarum concubitu abstinent; inter se nihil inlicitum. Circumcidere genitalia instituerunt ut diversitate noscantur. Transgressi in morem eorum idem usurpant, nec quicquam prius imbuuntur quam contemnere deos, exuere patriam, parentes liberos fratres vilia habere. Augendae tamen multitudini consulitur; nam et necare quemquam ex agnatis nefas, animosque proelio aut suppliciis peremptorum aeternos putant: hinc generandi amor et moriendi contemptus. Corpora condere quam cremare e more Aegyptio, eademque cura et de infernis persuasio, caelestium contra. Aegyptii pleraque animalia effigiesque compositas venerantur, Iudaei mente sola unumque numen intellegunt: profanos qui deum imagines mortalibus materiis in species hominum effingant; summum illud et aeternum neque imitabile neque interiturum. Igitur nulla simulacra urbibus suis, nedum templis sistunt; non regibus haec adulatio, non Caesaribus honor. Sed quia sacerdotes eorum tibia tympanisque concinebant, hedera vinciebantur vitisque aurea templo reperta, Liberum patrem coli, domitorem Orientis, quidam arbitrati sunt, nequaquam congruentibus institutis. Quippe Liber festos laetosque ritus posuit, Iudaeorum mos absurdus sordidusque.
5.
Regardless of their origin, these rites are validated by their antiquity, but other observances are evil, abominable, and persist on account of their perversity. Indeed, the worst scoundrels in other lands, after spurning the beliefs of their ancestors [and converting to Judaism], are wont to send tribute and offering of all kinds to Jerusalem. That is one reason this nation grew powerful; another is that Jews are scroupulously honest with one another and very much inclined to compassion, whereas they nurse an implacable hate towards outsiders. They disdain to eat their meals and take their rest with outsiders, and, in spite of being a libidinous race, they recoil from intercourse with foreign women. Among themselves, nothing is illicit. They introduced circumcision to differentiate themselves with this distinctive sign. Those who desert their religion to join them follow the same practice and the first principles they are inculcated with are to despise their own gods, to sever connection with their country, and to have no consideration for parents, children, or brothers. They make sure, however, to keep the population on the increase; in fact, it is a crime to supress any unwanted child. They believe in the immortality of the soul of those killed in battle or executed, and from this comes their passion for procreation and their contempt of death. They prefer to bury the dead than to cremate them, in conformity with Egyptian custom and with the same care. About the underworld, they again hold the same views as the Egyptians, but their views about the supernal things are quite different. The Egyptians worship almost all animals and strange images of their composites: the Jews conceive divinity as being one god, but they do this with the mind only and deem blasphemous anyone who, from perishable materials, shapes images of the gods in human form. [In their eyes] god is a supreme, eternal being, who is beyond man’s power to imagine as he is beyond death. Consequently, they have no representations of the god in their cities, still less are they present in the temples. They refuse this form of adulation to their kings, this honor to the Caesars, but because their priests sing accompanied by flutes and cymbals and wear garlands of ivy, and because a golden grapevine was found in the Temple, some have concluded that they worship Father Liber, the tamer of the East, [a surmise] not at all in keeping with the culture of this race, for the rites Liber instituted are exceedingly joyous, those of the Jews are ludicrous and squalid.
VI.
Terra finesque qua ad Orientem vergunt Arabia terminantur, a meridie Aegyptus obiacet, ab occasu Phoenices et mare, septentrionem e latere Syriae longe prospectant. Corpora hominum salubria et ferentia laborum. Rari imbres, uber solum: [exuberant] fruges nostrum ad morem praeterque eas balsamum et palmae. Palmetis proceritas et decor, balsamum modica arbor: ut quisque ramus intumuit, si Vim ferri adhibeas, pavent venae; fragmine lapidis aut testa aperiuntur; umor in usu medentium est. Praecipuum montium Libanum erigit, mirum dictu, tantos inter ardores opacum fidumque nivibus; idem amnem Iordanen alit funditque. Nec Iordanes pelago accipitur, sed unum atque alterum lacum integer perfluit, tertio retinetur. Lacus immenso ambitu, specie maris, sapore corruptior, gravitate odoris accolis pestifer, neque vento impellitur neque piscis aut suetas aquis volucris patitur. Inertes undae superiacta ut solido ferunt; periti imperitique nandi perinde attolluntur. Certo anni bitumen egerit, cuius legendi usum, ut ceteras artis, experientia docuit. Ater suapte natura liquor et sparso aceto concretus innatat; hunc manu captum, quibus ea cura, in summa navis trahunt: inde nullo iuvante influit oneratque, donec abscindas. Nec abscindere aere ferrove possis: fugit cruorem vestemque infectam sanguine, quo feminae per mensis exolvuntur. Sic veteres auctores, sed gnari locorum tradunt undantis bitumine moles pelli manuque trahi ad litus, mox, ubi vapore terrae, vi solis inaruerint, securibus cuneisque ut trabes aut saxa discindi.
6.
Their land and boundaries towards the east are delimited by Arabia, from the south by Egypt, from the west by Phoenicia and the Mediterranean, and towards the north it has a wide view of Syria. The inhabitants are healthy and robust. Rain is rare, the soil fertile, crops abundant and much like our own, with balsam and palms besides. The palm-groves are tall and beautiful; the balsam is no more than a shrub: if a branch swollen with sap is cut with a knife, the vessels shrink [as if] from fear and a fragment of stone or shard of earthenware is used to open them. The juice is used in medicine. Their highest mountain, Libanus, rises dark with shady trees and faithfully guards its snows, a true marvel in this torrid climate. It also feeds and sends on its way the river Jordan, which does not empty in the sea, but flows undiminished first through one lake, then a second, before being absorbed by a third. This last is of vast size, like a sea, but its waters are even more revolting to the taste than seawater. The lake is noxious to the people living near it because of its pestilential exhalations. It cannot be stirred by the wind and offers no home to either fish or water-fowl. The lifeless waters support whatever is thrown into them, as if they were solid. Swimmers and non-swimmers alike are kept afloat. At a certain period of the year the lake will bring up bitumen, the collection of which the locals have learned from experience, the teacher of all arts. In its natural state bitumen is a black fluid which curdles when sprinkled with vinegar and floats to the surface. Those whose task is to gather bitumen grab it with their hands and drag it aboard a ship. It then continues to haul itself in, without outside help, until one cuts it: but it cannot be cut using tools made of bronze or steel. [Also] it recoils from blood and from any garment stained with the menstrual discharge of women. Such is the story as told by ancient writers, but those familiar with the country say that build-ups of bitumen float on the water and are pushed and pulled to the shore by hand. Later, when dried by the heat of the soil and by the force of the sun, axes and wedges are used to split and cut them, as is done with stones and timber.
VII.
Haud procul inde campi quos ferunt olim uberes magnisque urbibus habitatos fulminum iactu arsisse; et manere vestigia, terramque ipsam, specie torridam, vim frugiferam perdidisse. Nam cuncta sponte edita aut manu sata, sive herba tenus aut flore seu solitam in speciem adolevere, atra et inania velut in cinerem vanescunt. Ego sicut inclitas quondam urbis igne caelesti flagrasse concesserim, ita halitu lacus infici terram, corrumpi superfusum spiritum, eoque fetus segetum et autumni putrescere reor, solo caeloque iuxta gravi. Et Belius amnis Iudaico mari inlabitur, circa cuius os lectae harenae admixto nitro in vitrum excoquuntur. Modicum id litus et egerentibus inexhaustum.
7.
Not far from the lake are open spaces which they say were once fertile and the location of great cities, but were consumed by fire when struck by lightning. [It is claimed] that traces of the tragedy still linger and that the soil itself appears burnt and has lost the strength to produce. In effect, all plants in the region, whether wild or cultivated by man, be they in leaf, in flower, or maturing in the usual way seem to vanish, black and barren, into dust. On my part, though I may not deny that famous cities were once obliterated by celestial fire, I prefer to think that the miasmas from the lake infect the ground and corrupt the surrounding atmosphere and that the reason summer crops and fall harvests rot away is the equally hostile influence on plant growth of both soil and air. [As for other bodies of water in Judaea], the river Belus flows into the Jewish sea. Around its mouth sands of a special kind are mixed with alkalis and melted into glass. The strand [where the sand is collected], is not large, but the supply to those who exploit it is inexhaustible.
VIII.
Magna pars Iudaeae vicis dispergitur, habent et oppida; Hierosolyma genti caput. Illic immensae opulentiae templum, et primis munimentis urbs, dein regia, templum intimis clausum. Ad fores tantum Iudaeo aditus, limine praeter sacerdotes arcebantur. Dum Assyrios penes Medosque et Persas Oriens fuit, despectissima pars servientium: postquam Macedones praepolluere, rex Antiochus demere superstitionem et mores Graecorum dare adnisus, quo minus taeterrimam gentem in melius mutaret, Parthorum bello prohibitus est; nam ea tempestate Arsaces desciverat. Tum Iudaei Macedonibus invalidis, Parthis nondum adultis–et Romani procul erant–, sibi ipsi reges imposuere; qui mobilitate vulgi expulsi, resumpta per arma dominatione fugas civium, urbium eversiones, fratrum coniugum parentum neces aliaque solita regibus ausi superstitionem fovebant, quia honor sacerdotii firmamentum potentiae adsumebatur.
8.
Much of Judea is dotted with villages, but they also have towns. Hierosolyma is the nation’s capital. Here was their temple, containing unheard of riches. A first line of defence protected the city, then came the royal palace, then the temple surrounded by the inmost fortifications. Jews only were allowed as far as the temple’s gates, but admittance to the temple itself was reserved for the priests. As long as the Orient was in the hands of Assyrians, Medes, and Persians, the Jews were considered the lowest of the slaves. After the Macedonians won control, king Antiochus did his utmost to eradicate Jewish fanaticism and better this incredibly obdurate race by intrducing Greek customs, but he was prevented by the war with Parthia, for Arsaces, [the founder of the Parthian empire], had at that time revolted. Then the Jews, taking advantage of the Macedonian decline, of the relative infancy of the Parthian empire, and of the distance that separated them from the Romans, chose kings of their own. Expelled by the whimsical populace, then recovering their throne by use of force, these kings, after daring to commit all the outrages that are usual with kings — the banishment of citizens, the razing of cities, the murder of brothers, spouses, and parents – encouraged superstition [among the people], after assuming priestly dignity to prop up their authority.
IX.
Romanorum primus Cn. Pompeius Iudaeos domuit templumque iure victoriae ingressus est: inde vulgatum nulla intus deum effigie vacuam sedem et inania arcana. Muri Hierosolymorum diruti, delubrum mansit. Mox civili inter nos bello, postquam in dicionem M. Antonii provinciae cesserant, rex Parthorum Pacorus Iudaea potitus interfectusque a P. Ventidio, et Parthi trans Euphraten redacti: Iudaeos C. Sosius subegit. Regnum ab Antonio Herodi datum victor Augustus auxit. Post mortem Herodis, nihil expectato Caesare, Simo quidam regium nomen invaserat. Is a Quintilio Varo obtinente Syriam punitus, et gentem coercitam liberi Herodis tripertito rexere. Sub Tiberio quies. Dein iussi a C. Caesare effigiem eius in templo locare arma potius sumpsere, quem motum Caesaris mors diremit. Claudius, defunctis regibus aut ad modicum redactis, Iudaeam provinciam equitibus Romanis aut libertis permisit, e quibus Antonius Felix per omnem saevitiam ac libidinem ius regium servili ingenio exercuit, Drusilla Cleopatrae et Antonii nepte in matrimonium accepta, ut eiusdem Antonii Felix progener, Claudius nepos esset.
9.
Gnaeus Pompey was the first Roman to subdue the Jews and to enter the temple by right of conquest. That is why it became widely known that inside there were no figures of gods and that the inner sanctuary contained nothing. The walls of Hierosolyma were demolished, the temple remained. Then we had civil wars at home, and after the [eastern] provinces had come under the control of Marc Antony, the Parthian king Pacorus seized Judaea, but was killed by Publius Ventidius and the Parthians were pushed back across the Euphrates. The Jews were brought to heel by Gaius Sosius. The kingdom, given by Antony to Herod, was enlarged by Augustus in the wake of his victory. Following Herod’s death, a certain Simon usurped the title of king without waiting for the emperor’s decision, but was put to death by Quintilius Varus, the governor of Syria, and the humbled nation was divided into three parts and assigned to Herod’s sons. Under Tiberius there was quiet, but when later Caligula ordered that one of his statues be placed in the temple, the Jews preferred to rise up in arms, yet their rebellion was cut short by Caligula’s death. Under Claudius the Jewish kings were either dead or fairly irrelevant, so the emperor placed the province of Judaea in the care of Roman knights or of freedmen. One of these freedmen was Antonius Felix, who gave free reign to his cruelty and lust and exercised the power of a king with the mean spirit of a slave. He had married Drusilla, Antony’s and Cleopatra’s granddaughter, so he became the grandson-in-law of Antony himself, just as Claudius was Antony’s grandson.
X.
Duravit tamen patientia Iudaeis usque ad Gessium Florum procuratorem: sub eo bellum ortum. Et comprimere coeptantem Cestium Gallum Syriae legatum varia proelia ac saepius adversa excepere. Qui ubi fato aut taedio occidit, missu Neronis Vespasianus fortuna famaque et egregiis ministris intra duas aestates cuncta camporum omnisque praeter Hierosolyma urbis victore exercitu tenebat. Proximus annus civili bello intentus quantum ad Iudaeos per otium transiit. Pace per Italiam parta et externae curae rediere: augebat iras quod soli Iudaei non cessissent; simul manere apud exercitus Titum ad omnis principatus novi eventus casusve utile videbatur.
10.
In spite of all the abuse, the patience of the Jews held firm until the time Gessius Florus became the procurator of Judaea. War broke out and when the governor of Syria, Cestius Gallus, tried to contain it, he met with more reverses than success in the encounters that followed. When Gallus died, either of natural causes or from weariness of life, Nero sent Vespasian, who, assisted by good fortune, by his reputation as general, and by capable officers, in two years was able to occupy with his victorious army all the level territory and all the towns except Jerusalem. The following year was taken up by civil war and on the part of the Jews nothing new was undertaken. Once peace was secured throughout Italy, interest in foreign affairs returned. Roman anger was growing at the thought that of all nations the Jews alone as yet refused to yield. It also seemed best to leave Titus with the army to deal with any development or emergency facing the new regime.