ly called Salem. However, David, the king of the Jews, ejected the
Canaanites, and settled his own people therein.

It was demolished entirely by the Babylonians, four hundred and
seventy-seven years and six months after him. And from King David, who
was the first of the Jews who reigned therein, to this destruction under
Titus, were one thousand one hundred and seventy-nine years; but from
its first building till this last destruction were two thousand one
hundred and seventy-seven years; yet hath not its great antiquity, nor
its vast riches, nor the diffusion of its nation over all the habitable
earth, nor the greatness of the veneration paid to it on a religious
account, been sufficient to preserve it from being destroyed. And thus
ended the siege of Jerusalem.

FOOTNOTES:

[38] Not to be confounded with John of Gischala, leader of one of the
three factions.

[39] John of Gischala.

[40] Probably that of John Hyrcanus I, a Maccabaean, prince of Judea,
B.C. 135-105.

DESTRUCTION OF POMPEII

A.D. 79

PLINY LYTTON

Among the historic calamities of the world none has gathered about
itself more of human interest, whether in connection with the study
of ancient cities and customs or in the calling forth of sympathy
through the magical treatment of imaginative literature, than the
destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum by the eruption of Mount
Vesuvius, which occurred at the beginning of the reign of Titus.
The eruption was accompanied by an earthquake, and the combination
of natural commotions caused the complete ruin and burial of the
two cities.

One of the most vivid descriptions of the catastrophe is that given
in the account of Dion Cassius. Among those who perished in the
disaster was the elder Pliny, the celebrated naturalist; and the
most famous narrative of the eruption is that here given of Pliny
the Younger, nephew of the other, in the two letters which he wrote
to Tacitus in order to supply that historian with accurate details.

Lytton's well-known _Last Days of Pompeii_, although a work of
imagination, deals with this subject in a manner which almost
simulates the realistic tale of an actual observer; and his
account, linking the calamity itself with the revelations of the
earlier explorers of the buried city, after so many centuries had
passed, well deserves a place in conn