Tacitus: The Histories Part 36

[448] Cp. ii. 59.

[449] During June and July before the Etesian winds (cp. ii. 98) began to blow from the north-west.

[450] Circa A.D. 108.

[451] Meaning 'king's son', and therefore portending sovereignty.

[452] i.e. Ptolemy Soter, who founded the dynasty of the Lagidae, and reigned 306-283 B.C.

[453] They inherited the priesthood of Demeter at Eleusis and supplied the hierophants who conducted the mysteries.

[454] i.e. the sovereign G.o.d of the underworld.

[455] It is evident from these words that the worship of Serapis was ancient in Egypt. It seems to be suggested that the arrival of this statue from Pontus did not originate but invigorated the cult of Serapis. Pluto, Dis, Serapis, are all names for a G.o.d of the underworld. Jupiter seems added vaguely to give more power to the t.i.tle. We cannot expect accurate theology from an amateur antiquarian.

[456] Ptolemy Euergetes, 247-222 B.C.

[457] According to Eustathius there was a Mount Sinopium near Memphis. This suggests an origin for the t.i.tle Sinopitis, applied to Serapis, and a cause for the invention of the romantic story about Sinope in Pontus.

[458] Cp. chap. 68.

[459] i.e. Mucia.n.u.s was too cunning to give Domitian any excuse for declaring his suspicions.

BOOK V

THE CONQUEST OF JUDAEA

Early in this same year[460] t.i.tus Caesar had been entrusted by his 1 father with the task of completing the reduction of Judaea.[461] While he and his father were both still private citizens, t.i.tus had distinguished himself as a soldier, and his reputation for efficiency was steadily increasing, while the provinces and armies vied with one another in their enthusiasm for him. Wishing to seem independent of his good fortune, he always showed dignity and energy in the field.

His affability called forth devotion. He constantly helped in the trenches and could mingle with his soldiers on the march without compromising his dignity as general. Three legions awaited him in Judaea, the Fifth, Tenth, and Fifteenth, all veterans from his father's army. These were reinforced by the Twelfth from Syria and by detachments of the Twenty-second and the Third,[462] brought over from Alexandria. This force was accompanied by twenty auxiliary cohorts and eight regiments of auxiliary cavalry besides the Kings Agrippa and Sohaemus, King Antiochus' irregulars,[463] a strong force of Arabs, who had a neighbourly hatred for the Jews, and a crowd of persons who had come from Rome and the rest of Italy, each tempted by the hope of securing the first place in the prince's still unoccupied affections.

With this force t.i.tus entered the enemy's country at the head of his column, sending out scouts in all directions, and holding himself ready to fight. He pitched his camp not far from Jerusalem.

Since I am coming now to describe the last days of this famous 2 city, it may not seem out of place to recount here its early history.

It is said that the Jews are refugees from Crete,[464] who settled on the confines of Libya at the time when Saturn was forcibly deposed by Jupiter. The evidence for this is sought in the name. Ida is a famous mountain in Crete inhabited by the Idaei,[465] whose name became lengthened into the foreign form Judaei. Others say that in the reign of Isis the superfluous population of Egypt, under the leadership of Hierosolymus and Juda, discharged itself upon the neighbouring districts, while there are many who think the Jews an Ethiopian stock, driven to migrate by their fear and dislike of King Cepheus.[466]

Another tradition makes them a.s.syrian refugees,[467] who, lacking lands of their own, occupied a district of Egypt, and later took to building cities of their own and tilling Hebrew territory and the frontier-land of Syria. Yet another version a.s.signs to the Jews an ill.u.s.trious origin as the descendants of the Solymi--a tribe famous in Homer[468]--who founded the city and called it Hiero_solyma_ after their own name.[469]

Most authorities agree that a foul and disfiguring disease once 3 broke out in Egypt, and that King Bocchoris,[470] on approaching the oracle of Ammon and inquiring for a remedy, was told to purge his kingdom of the plague and to transport all who suffered from it into some other country, for they had earned the disfavour of Heaven. A motley crowd was thus collected and abandoned in the desert. While all the other outcasts lay idly lamenting, one of them, named Moses, advised them not to look for help to G.o.ds or men, since both had deserted them, but to trust rather in themselves and accept as divine the guidance of the first being by whose aid they should get out of their present plight. They agreed, and set out blindly to march wherever chance might lead them. Their worst distress came from lack of water. When they were already at death's door and lying prostrate all over the plain, it so happened that a drove of wild a.s.ses moved away from their pasture to a rock densely covered with trees. Guessing the truth from the gra.s.sy nature of the ground, Moses followed and disclosed an ample flow of water.[471] This saved them. Continuing their march for six successive days, on the seventh they routed the natives and gained possession of the country. There they consecrated their city and their temple.

To ensure his future hold over the people, Moses introduced a new 4 cult, which was the opposite of all other religions. All that we hold sacred they held profane, and allowed practices which we abominate.

They dedicated in a shrine an image of the animal[472] whose guidance had put an end to their wandering and thirst. They killed a ram, apparently as an insult to Ammon, and also sacrificed a bull, because the Egyptians worship the bull Apis.[473] Pigs are subject to leprosy; so they abstain from pork in memory of their misfortune and the foul plague with which they were once infected. Their frequent fasts[474]

bear witness to the long famine they once endured, and, in token of the corn they carried off, Jewish bread is to this day made without leaven. They are said to have devoted the seventh day to rest, because that day brought an end to their troubles.[475] Later, finding idleness alluring, they gave up the seventh year as well to sloth.[476] Others maintain that they do this in honour of Saturn;[477] either because their religious principles are derived from the Idaei, who are supposed to have been driven out with Saturn and become the ancestors of the Jewish people; or else because, of the seven constellations which govern the lives of men, the star of Saturn moves in the topmost orbit and exercises peculiar influence, and also because most of the heavenly bodies move round[478] their courses in multiples of seven.

Whatever their origin, these rites are sanctioned by their 5 antiquity. Their other customs are impious and abominable, and owe their prevalence to their depravity. For all the most worthless rascals, renouncing their national cults, were always sending money to swell the sum of offerings and tribute.[479] This is one cause of Jewish prosperity. Another is that they are obstinately loyal to each other, and always ready to show compa.s.sion, whereas they feel nothing but hatred and enmity for the rest of the world.[480] They eat and sleep separately. Though immoderate in s.e.xual indulgence, they refrain from all intercourse with foreign women: among themselves anything is allowed.[481] They have introduced circ.u.mcision to distinguish themselves from other people. Those who are converted to their customs adopt the same practice, and the first lessons they learn are to despise the G.o.ds,[482] to renounce their country, and to think nothing of their parents, children, and brethren. However, they take steps to increase their numbers. They count it a crime to kill any of their later-born children,[483] and they believe that the souls of those who die in battle or under persecution are immortal.[484] Thus they think much of having children and nothing of facing death. They prefer to bury and not burn their dead.[485] In this, as in their burial rites, and in their belief in an underworld, they conform to Egyptian custom.

Their ideas of heaven are quite different. The Egyptians worship most of their G.o.ds as animals, or in shapes half animal and half human. The Jews acknowledge one G.o.d only, of whom they have a purely spiritual conception. They think it impious to make images of G.o.ds in human shape out of perishable materials. Their G.o.d is almighty and inimitable, without beginning and without end. They therefore set up no statues in their temples, nor even in their cities, refusing this homage both to their own kings and to the Roman emperors. However, the fact that their priests intoned to the flute and cymbals and wore wreaths of ivy, and that a golden vine was found in their temple[486]

has led some people to think that they worship Bacchus,[487] who has so enthralled the East. But their cult would be most inappropriate.

Bacchus inst.i.tuted gay and cheerful rites, but the Jewish ritual is preposterous and morbid.

The country of the Jews is bounded by Arabia on the east, by Egypt 6 on the south, and on the west by Phoenicia and the sea. On the Syrian frontier they have a distant view towards the north.[488] Physically they are healthy and hardy. Rain is rare; the soil infertile; its products are of the same kind as ours with the addition of balsam and palms. The palm is a tall and beautiful tree, the balsam a mere shrub.

When its branches are swollen with sap they open them with a sharp piece of stone or crockery, for the sap-vessels shrink up at the touch of iron. The sap is used in medicine. Lebanon, their chief mountain, stands always deep in its eternal snow, a strange phenomenon in such a burning climate. Here, too, the river Jordan has its source[489] and comes pouring down, to find a home in the sea. It flows undiminished through first one lake, then another, and loses itself in a third.[490] This last is a lake of immense size, like a sea, though its water has a foul taste and a most unhealthy smell, which poisons the surrounding inhabitants. No wind can stir waves in it: no fish or sea-birds can live there. The sluggish water supports whatever is thrown on to it, as if its surface were solid, while those who cannot swim float on it as easily as those who can. Every year at the same time the lake yields asphalt. As with other arts, it is experience which shows how to collect it. It is a black liquid which, when congealed with a sprinkling of vinegar, floats on the surface of the water. The men who collect it take it in this state into their hands and haul it on deck. Then without further aid it trickles in and loads the boat until you cut off the stream. But this you cannot do with iron or bra.s.s: the current is turned by applying blood or a garment stained with a woman's menstrual discharge. That is what the old authorities say, but those who know the district aver that floating blocks of asphalt are driven landwards by the wind and dragged to sh.o.r.e by hand. The steam out of the earth and the heat of the sun dries them, and they are then split up with axes and wedges, like logs or blocks of stone.

Not far from this lake are the Plains, which they say were once 7 fertile and covered with large and populous cities which were destroyed by lightning.[491] Traces of the cities are said to remain, and the ground, which looks scorched, has lost all power of production. The plants, whether wild or artificially cultivated, are blighted and sterile and wither into dust and ashes, either when in leaf or flower, or when they have attained their full growth. Without denying that at some date famous cities were there burnt up by lightning, I am yet inclined to think that it is the exhalation from the lake which infects the soil and poisons the surrounding atmosphere. Soil and climate being equally deleterious, the crops and fruits all rot away.

The river Belus also falls into this Jewish sea. Round its mouth is found a peculiar kind of sand which is mixed with native soda and smelted into gla.s.s. Small though the beach is, its product is inexhaustible.

The greater part of the population live in scattered villages, but 8 they also have towns. Jerusalem is the Jewish capital, and contained the temple, which was enormously wealthy. A first line of fortifications guarded the city, another the palace, and an innermost line enclosed the temple.[492] None but a Jew was allowed as far as the doors: none but the priests might cross the threshold.[493] When the East was in the hands of the a.s.syrians, Medes and Persians, they regarded the Jews as the meanest of their slaves. During the Macedonian ascendancy[494] King Antiochus[495] endeavoured to abolish their superst.i.tions and to introduce Greek manners and customs. But Arsaces at that moment rebelled,[496] and the Parthian war prevented him from effecting any improvement in the character of this grim people. Then, when Macedon waned, as the Parthian power was not yet ripe and Rome was still far away, they took kings of their own.[497]

The mob were fickle and drove them out. However, they recovered their throne by force; banished their countrymen, sacked cities, slew their brothers, wives, and parents, and committed all the usual kingly crimes. But this only fostered the hold of the Jewish religion, since the kings had strengthened their authority by a.s.suming the priesthood.

Cnaeus Pompeius was the first Roman to subdue the Jews and set foot 9 in their temple by right of conquest.[498] It was then first realized that the temple contained no image of any G.o.d: their sanctuary was empty, their mysteries meaningless. The walls of Jerusalem were destroyed, but the temple was left standing. Later, during the Roman civil wars, when the eastern provinces had come under the control of Mark Antony, the Parthian Prince Pacorus seized Judaea,[499] and was killed by Publius Ventidius. The Parthians were driven back over the Euphrates, and Caius Sosius[500] subdued the Jews. Antony gave the kingdom to Herod,[501] and Augustus, after his victory, enlarged it.

After Herod's death, somebody called Simon,[502] without awaiting the emperor's decision, forcibly a.s.sumed the t.i.tle of king. He was executed by Quintilius Varus, who was Governor of Syria; the Jews were repressed and the kingdom divided between three of Herod's sons.[503]

Under Tiberius all was quiet. Caligula ordered them to put up his statue in the temple. They preferred war to that. But Caligula's death put an end to the rising.[504] In Claudius' reign the kings had all either died or lost most of their territory. The emperor therefore made Judaea a province to be governed by Roman knights or freedmen.

One of these, Antonius Felix,[505] indulged in every kind of cruelty and immorality, wielding a king's authority with all the instincts of a slave. He had married Drusilla, a granddaughter of Antony and Cleopatra, so that he was Antony's grandson-in-law, while Claudius was Antony's grandson.[506]

The Jews endured such oppression patiently until the time of 10 Gessius Florus,[507] under whom war broke out. Cestius Gallus, the Governor of Syria, tried to crush it, but met with more reverses than victories. He died, either in the natural course or perhaps of disgust, and Nero sent out Vespasian, who, in a couple of campaigns,[508] thanks to his reputation, good fortune, and able subordinates, had the whole of the country districts and all the towns except Jerusalem under the heel of his victorious army. The next year[509] was taken up with civil war, and pa.s.sed quietly enough as far as the Jews were concerned. But peace once restored in Italy, foreign troubles began again with feelings embittered on our side by the thought that the Jews were the only people who had not given in.

At the same time it seemed best to leave t.i.tus at the head of the army to meet the eventualities of the new reign, whether good or bad.

Thus, as we have already seen,[510] t.i.tus pitched his camp before 11 the walls of Jerusalem and proceeded to display his legions in battle order. The Jews formed up at the foot of their own walls, ready, if successful, to venture further, but a.s.sured of their retreat in case of reverse. A body of cavalry and some light-armed foot were sent forward, and fought an indecisive engagement, from which the enemy eventually retired. During the next few days a series of skirmishes took place in front of the gates, and at last continual losses drove the Jews behind their walls. The Romans then determined to take it by storm. It seemed undignified to sit and wait for the enemy to starve, and the men all clamoured for the risks, some being really brave, while many others were wild and greedy for plunder. t.i.tus himself had the vision of Rome with all her wealth and pleasures before his eyes, and felt that their enjoyment was postponed unless Jerusalem fell at once. The city, however, stands high and is fortified with works strong enough to protect a city standing on the plain. Two enormous hills[511] were surrounded by walls ingeniously built so as to project or slope inwards and thus leave the flanks of an attacking party exposed to fire. The rocks were jagged at the top. The towers, where the rising ground helped, were sixty feet high, and in the hollows as much as a hundred and twenty. They are a wonderful sight and seem from a distance to be all of equal height. Within this runs another line of fortification surrounding the palace, and on a conspicuous height stands the Antonia, a castle named by Herod in honour of Mark Antony.

The temple was built like a citadel with walls of its own, on 12 which more care and labour had been spent than on any of the others.

Even the cloisters surrounding the temple formed a splendid rampart.

There was a never-failing spring of water,[512] catacombs hollowed out of the hills, and pools or cisterns for holding the rain-water. Its original builders had foreseen that the peculiarities of Jewish life would lead to frequent wars, consequently everything was ready for the longest of sieges. Besides this, when Pompey took the city, bitter experience taught them several lessons, and in the days of Claudius they had taken advantage of his avarice to buy rights of fortification, and built walls in peace-time as though war were imminent. Their numbers were now swelled by floods of human refuse and unfortunate refugees from other towns.[513] All the most desperate characters in the country had taken refuge there, which did not conduce to unity. They had three armies, each with its own general.

The outermost and largest line of wall was held by Simon; the central city by John, and the temple by Eleazar.[514] John and Simon were stronger than Eleazar in numbers and equipment, but he had the advantage of a strong position. Their relations mainly consisted of fighting, treachery, and arson: a large quant.i.ty of corn was burnt.

Eventually, under pretext of offering a sacrifice, John sent a party of men to ma.s.sacre Eleazar and his troops, and by this means gained possession of the temple.[515] Thus Jerusalem was divided into two hostile parties, but on the approach of the Romans the necessities of foreign warfare reconciled their differences.

Various portents had occurred at this time, but so sunk in 13 superst.i.tion 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 G.o.ds 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 t.i.tus. 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 t.i.tus was faced. As the nature of the ground forbade a sudden a.s.sault, 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 ident.i.ty 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.