eets; but the
Romans, pouring in in great numbers through the breaches, pressed
them step by step up the steep hill.

The Jews, animated by despair, again turned, and fell upon them
with such fury that the Romans could not withstand the assault, and
were driven down the steep lanes and paths, with great slaughter.
But those who fled were stopped by the crowd of their own men,
pressing up the hill from below; and the Roman soldiers--jammed, as
it were, between the Jews above, and their own countrymen
below--took refuge in the houses, in great numbers.

But these were not constructed to bear the weight of so many men,
in heavy armor The floors fell in and, as many of the Romans
climbed up on to the flat roofs, these also fell, bringing the
walls down with them. Standing, as they did, almost one above
another, each house that fell brought down the one below it and,
thus, the ruin spread--as one house of cards brings down
another--until the whole of the town standing on the steep
declivity, on its eastern side, was a mass of ruins.

The confusion was tremendous. The dust of the falling houses so
thickened the air that men could not see a yard in front of them.
Hundreds of the Roman soldiers were buried among the ruins. Some
were killed, at once. Others, jammed between fallen timbers, strove
in vain to extricate themselves, and shouted to their comrades to
come to their assistance; but these--enveloped in darkness,
ignorant of the ground, half suffocated with dust--were powerless
to aid them.

In the confusion, Romans fell by the swords of Romans. Many who
could not extricate themselves slew themselves, with their own
swords; while the exulting Jews--seeing, in this terrible disaster,
a miracle effected in their favor--crowded down from above, slaying
with their swords, hurling masses of stone down on the foe, killing
those unable to retreat, and adding to the confusion and terror
with their yells of triumph, which rose high above the confused
shouts of the Romans.

Vespasian himself, who had entered the town with his soldiers, and
had pushed forward with them up the hill, was nearly involved in
the common destruction; but, as the houses came crashing down
around him, he shouted loudly to the soldiers near to gather round
him, and to lock their shields together to form a testudo.
Recognizing the voice of their beloved general, the soldiers near
rallied round him and, sheltered beneath their closely-packed
shields, r