Chapter 4.
HOW POMPEY WHEN THE CITIZENS OF JERUSALEM SHUT THEIR GATES
AGAINST HIM BESIEGED THE CITY AND TOOK IT BY FORCE; AS ALSO WHAT OTHER
THINGS HE DID IN JUDEA.FJAJ 14.17
1. NOW when Pompey had pitched his camp at Jericho, (where the palm
tree grows, and that balsam which is an ointment of all the most precious,
which upon any incision made in the wood with a sharp stone, distills out
thence like a juice,) (4)
These express testimonies of Josephus here, and Antiq. B. VIII. ch. 6.
sect. 6, and B. XV. ch. 4. sect. 2, that the only balsam gardens, and the
best palm trees, were, at least in his days, near Jericho and Kugaddi,
about the north part of the Dead Sea, (whereabout also Alexander the Great
saw the balsam drop,) show the mistake of those that understand Eusebius
and Jerom as if one of those gardens were at the south part of that sea,
at Zoar or Segor, whereas they must either mean another Zoar or Segor,
which was between Jericho and Kugaddi, agreeably to Josephus: which yet
they do not appear to do, or else they directly contradict Josephus, and
were therein greatly mistaken: I mean this, unless that balsam, and the
best palm trees, grew much more southward in Judea in the days of Eusebius
and Jerom than they did in the days of Josephus.
he marched in the morning to Jerusalem
Hereupon Aristobulus repented of
what he was doing, and came to Pompey, had [promised to] give him money,
and received him into Jerusalem, and desired that he would leave off the
war, and do what he pleased peaceably
So Pompey, upon his entreaty, forgave
him, and sent Gabinius, and soldiers with him, to receive the money and
the city: yet was no part of this performed; but Gabinius came back, being
both excluded out of the city, and receiving none of the money promised,
because Aristobulus's soldiers would not permit the agreements to be executed.
At this Pompey was very angry, and put Aristobulus into prison, and came
himself to the city, which was strong on every side, excepting the north,
which was not so well fortified, for there was a broad and deep ditch that
encompassed the city (5)
The particular depth and breadth of this ditch, whence the stones for the
wall about the temple were probably taken, are omitted in our copies of
Josephus, but set down by Strabo, B. XVI. p. 763; from whom we learn that
this ditch was sixty feet deep, and two hundred and fifty feet broad. However,
its depth is, in the next section, said by Josephus to be immense, which
exactly agrees to Strabo's description, and which numbers in Strabo are
a strong confirmation of the truth of Josephus's description also.
and included within it the temple, which was itself encompassed about with
a very strong stone wall.FJAJ 14.18
2. Now there was a sedition of the men that were within the city, who
did not agree what was to be done in their present circumstances, while
some thought it best to deliver up the city to Pompey; but Aristobulus's
party exhorted them to shut the gates, because he was kept in prison
Now
these prevented the others, and seized upon the temple, and cut off the
bridge which reached from it to the city, and prepared themselves to abide
a siege; but the others admitted Pompey's army in, and delivered up both
the city and the king's palace to him
So Pompey sent his lieutenant Piso
with an army, and placed garrisons both in the city and in the palace,
to secure them, and fortified the houses that joined to the temple, and
all those which were more distant and without it
And in the first place,
he offered terms of accommodation to those within; but when they would
not comply with what was desired, he encompassed all the places thereabout
with a wall, wherein Hyrcanus did gladly assist him on all occasions; but
Pompey pitched his camp within [the wall], on the north part of the temple,
where it was most practicable; but even on that side there were great towers,
and a ditch had been dug, and a deep valley begirt it round about, for
on the parts towards the city were precipices, and the bridge on which
Pompey had gotten in was broken down
However, a bank was raised, day by
day, with a great deal of labor, while the Romans cut down materials for
it from the places round about
And when this bank was sufficiently raised,
and the ditch filled up, though but poorly, by reason of its immense depth,
he brought his mechanical engines and battering-rams from Tyre, and placing
them on the bank, he battered the temple with the stones that were thrown
against it
And had it not been our practice, from the days of our forefathers,
to rest on the seventh day, this bank could never have been perfected,
by reason of the opposition the Jews would have made; for though our law
gives us leave then to defend ourselves against those that begin to fight
with us and assault us, yet does it not permit us to meddle with our enemies
while they do any thing else.FJAJ 14.19
3. Which thing when the Romans understood, on those days which we call
Sabbaths they threw nothing at the Jews, nor came to any pitched battle
with them; but raised up their earthen banks, and brought their engines
into such forwardness, that they might do execution the next day
And any
one may hence learn how very great piety we exercise towards God, and the
observance of his laws, since the priests were not at all hindered from
their sacred ministrations by their fear during this siege, but did still
twice a-day, in the morning and about the ninth hour, offer their sacrifices
on the altar; nor did they omit those sacrifices, if any melancholy accident
happened by the stones that were thrown among them; for although the city
was taken on the third month, on the day of the fast, (6)
That is, on the 23rd of Sivan, the annual fast for the defection and idolatry
of Jeroboam, "who made Israel to sin;" or possibly some other
fast might fall into that month, before and in the days of Josephus.
upon the hundred and seventy-ninth olympiad, when Caius Antonius and Marcus
Tullius Cicero were consuls, and the enemy then fell upon them, and cut
the throats of those that were in the temple; yet could not those that
offered the sacrifices be compelled to run away, neither by the fear they
were in of their own lives, nor by the number that were already slain,
as thinking it better to suffer whatever came upon them, at their very
altars, than to omit any thing that their laws required of them
And that
this is not a mere brag, or an encomium to manifest a degree of our piety
that was false, but is the real truth, I appeal to those that have written
of the acts of Pompey; and, among them, to Strabo and Nicolaus [of Damascus];
and besides these two, Titus Livius, the writer of the Roman History, who
will bear witness to this thing.FJAJ 14.20
(7)
It deserves here to be noted, that this Pharisaical, superstitious notion,
that offensive fighting was unlawful to Jews, even under the utmost necessity,
on the Sabbath day, of which we hear nothing before the times of the Maccabees,
was the proper occasion of Jerusalem's being taken by Pompey, by Sosius,
and by Titus, as appears from the places already quoted in the note on
Antiq. B. XIII. ch. 8. sect. 1; which scrupulous superstition, as to the
observation of such a rigorous rest upon the Sabbath day, our Savior always
opposed, when the Pharisaical Jews insisted on it, as is evident in many
places in the New Testament, though he still intimated how pernicious that
superstition might prove to them in their flight from the Romans, Matthew
25:20.FJAJ 14.21
4. But when the battering-engine was brought near, the greatest of the
towers was shaken by it, and fell down, and broke down a part of the fortifications,
so the enemy poured in apace; and Cornelius Faustus, the son of Sylla,
with his soldiers, first of all ascended the wall, and next to him Furius
the centurion, with those that followed on the other part, while Fabius,
who was also a centurion, ascended it in the middle, with a great body
of men after him
But now all was full of slaughter; some of the Jews being
slain by the Romans, and some by one another; nay, some there were who
threw themselves down the precipices, or put fire to their houses, and
burnt them, as not able to bear the miseries they were under
Of the Jews
there fell twelve thousand, but of the Romans very few
Absalom, who was
at once both uncle and father-in-law to Aristobulus, was taken captive;
and no small enormities were committed about the temple itself, which,
in former ages, had been inaccessible, and seen by none; for Pompey went
into it, and not a few of those that were with him also, and saw all that
which it was unlawful for any other men to see but only for the high priests.
There were in that temple the golden table, the holy candlestick, and the
pouring vessels, and a great quantity of spices; and besides these there
were among the treasures two thousand talents of sacred money: yet did
Pompey touch nothing of all this, (8)
This is fully confirmed by the testimony of Cicero, who: says, in his oration
for Flaecus, that "Cneius Pompeius, when he was conqueror, and had
taken Jerusalem, did not touch any thing belonging to that temple."
on account of his regard to religion; and in this point also he acted in
a manner that was worthy of his virtue
The next day he gave order to those
that had the charge of the temple to cleanse it, and to bring what offerings
the law required to God; and restored the high priesthood to Hyrcanus,
both because he had been useful to him in other respects, and because he
hindered the Jews in the country from giving Aristobulus any assistance
in his war against him
He also cut off those that had been the authors
of that war; and bestowed proper rewards on Faustus, and those others that
mounted the wall with such alacrity; and he made Jerusalem tributary to
the Romans, and took away those cities of Celesyria which the inhabitants
of Judea had subdued, and put them under the government of the Roman president,
and confined the whole nation, which had elevated itself so high before,
within its own bounds
Moreover, he rebuilt Gadara, (9)
Of this destruction of Gadara here presupposed, and its restoration by
Pompey, see the note on the War, B. I. ch. 7. sect. 7.
which had been demolished a little before, to gratify Demetrius of Gadara,
who was his freedman, and restored the rest of the cities, Hippos, and
Scythopolis, and Pella, and Dios, and Samaria, as also Marissa, and Ashdod,
and Jamnia, and Arethusa, to their own inhabitants: these were in the inland
parts
Besides those that had been demolished, and also of the maritime
cities, Gaza, and Joppa, and Dora, and Strato's Tower; which last Herod
rebuilt after a glorious manner, and adorned with havens and temples, and
changed its name to Caesarea
All these Pompey left in a state of freedom,
and joined them to the province of Syria.FJAJ 14.22
5. Now the occasions of this misery which came upon Jerusalem were Hyrcanus
and Aristobulus, by raising a sedition one against the other; for now we
lost our liberty, and became subject to the Romans, and were deprived of
that country which we had gained by our arms from the Syrians, and were
compelled to restore it to the Syrians
Moreover, the Romans exacted of
us, in a little time, above ten thousand talents; and the royal authority,
which was a dignity formerly bestowed on those that were high priests,
by the right of their family, became the property of private men
But of
these matters we shall treat in their proper places
Now Pompey committed
Celesyria, as far as the river Euphrates and Egypt, to Scaurus, with two
Roman legions, and then went away to Cilicia, and made haste to Rome
He
also carried bound along with him Aristobulus and his children; for he
had two daughters, and as many sons; the one of which ran away, but the
younger, Antigonus, was carried to Rome, together with his sisters.FJAJ 14.23