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The Roman historian Dio Cassius (ca. 164-after 229 C.E.) gives an account which in the
main agrees with that of Josephus, except that he sees Titus as encouraging the
destruction of the Temple, as did Tacitus.
(4:1) Titus, who had been assigned to the war against the Jews, undertook to win them
over by certain representations and promises; but, as they would not yield, he now
proceeded to wage war upon them. The first battles fought were indecisive; then he got
the upper hand and proceeded to besiege Jerusalem. This city had three walls, including
the one that surrounded the temple.
(2) The Romans, accordingly, heaped up mounds against the outer wall, brought up their
engines, joined battle with all who sallied forth to fight and repulsed them, and with their
slings and arrows kept back all the defenders of the wall; for they had many slingers and
bowmen who had been sent by some of the barbarian kings.
(3) The Jews also were assisted by many of their countrymen from the region round
about and by many who professed the same religion, not only from the Roman Empire
but also from beyond the Euphrates; and these, also, kept hurling missiles and stones with
(4) no little force on account of their higher position, some being flung by the hand and
some hurled by means of engines. They also made sallies both night and day, whenever
occasion offered, set fire to the siege engines, slew many of their assailants, and
undermined the Romans’ mounds byremoving the earth through tunnels driven under the
wall. As for the battering rams, sometimes they threw ropes around them and broke them
off, sometimes they pulled them up with hooks, and again they used thick planks fastened
together and strengthened with iron, which they let down in front of the wall and thus
fended off the blows of still others.
(5) But the Romans suffered most hardship from the lack of water; for their supply was of
poor quality and had to be brought from a distance. The Jews found in their underground
passages a source of strength; for they had these tunnels dug from inside the city and
extending out under the walls to distant points in the country, and going out though them,
they would attack the Romans’ water carriers and harass any scattered detachments. But
Titus stopped up all these passages.
(5:1) In the course of these operations many on both sides were wounded and killed.
Titus himself was struck on the left shoulder by a stone, and as a result of this accident
that arm was always weaker.
(2) In time, however, the Romans scaled the outside wall, and then, pitching their camp
between this and the second circuit, 52 proceeded to assault the latter. But here they found
the conditions of fighting different; for now that all the besieged had retired behind the
second wall, its defense proved an easier matter because its circuit was shorter.
(3) Titus therefore once more made a proclamation offering them immunity. But even
then they held out, and those of them who were taken captive or deserted kept secretly
destroying the Romans’ water supply and slaying any troops whom they could isolate and
cut off from the rest; hence Titus would no longer receive any Jewish deserters.
(4) Meanwhile some of the Romans, too, becoming disheartened, as often happens in a
protracted siege, and suspecting, furthermore, that the city really was impregnable, as was
commonly reported, went over to the other side. The Jews, even though theywere short
of food, treated these recruits kindly, in order to be able to show that there were deserters
to their side also.
(6:1) Though a breach was made in the wall by means of engines, nevertheless, the
capture of the place did not immediately follow even then. On the contrary, the defenders
killed great numbers who tried to crowd through the opening, and they also set fire to
some of the buildings near by, hoping thus to check the further progress of the Romans.
(2) Nevertheless, the soldiers, because of their superstition, did not immediately rush in;
but at last, under compulsion from Titus, they made their way inside. Then the Jews
defended themselves much more vigorously than before, as if they had discovered a piece
of rare good fortune in being able to fight near the temple and fall in its defense. The
populace was stationed below in the court, the senators on the steps, and the priests in the
sanctuary itself.
(3) And though they were but a handful fighting against a far superior force, they were
not conquered until a part of the temple was set on fire. Then they met death willingly,
some throwing themselves on the swords of the Romans, some slaying one another,
others taking their own lives, and still others leaping into the flames. And it seemed to
everybody, and especially to them, that so far from being destruction, it was victory and
salvation and happiness to them that they perished along with the temple.
(7:1) Yet even under these conditions many captives were taken, among them Bargiora, 53
their leader; and he was the only one to be executed in connection with the triumphal
celebration.
(2) Thus was Jerusalem destroyed on the very day of Saturn, 54 the day which even now
the Jews reverence most. From that time forth it was ordered that the Jews who continued
to observe their ancestral customs should pay an annual tribute of two denarii to Jupiter
Capitolinus. In consequence of this success both generals 55 received the title of
imperator, but neither got that of Judaicus, although all the other honors that were fitting
on the occasion of so magnificent a victory, including triumphal arches, were voted to
them.
51. Trans. E. Cary, Dio’s Roman History (Loeb Classical Library; Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 1925), vol. 8, pp. 264-70.
52. The second set of walls.
53. Simon bar Giora, leader of one of the revolutionary factions.
54. Saturday, the Sabbath.
55. Vespasian and Titus