thereupon they fled away to the
Romans. But here a worse fate accompanied these than what they had found
within the city; and they met with a quicker despatch from the too great
abundance they had among the Romans, than they could have done from the
famine among the Jews; for when they came first to the Romans, they were
puffed up by the famine, and swelled like men in a dropsy; after which
they all on the sudden overfilled those bodies that were before empty,
and so burst asunder, excepting such only as were skillful enough to
restrain their appetites, and by degrees took in their food into bodies
unaccustomed thereto. Yet did another plague seize upon those that were
thus preserved; for there was found among the Syrian deserters a certain
person who was caught gathering pieces of gold out of the excrements
of the Jews' bellies; for the deserters used to swallow such pieces of
gold, as we told you before, when they came out, and for these did the
seditious search them all; for there was a great quantity of gold in the
city, insomuch that as much was now sold [in the Roman camp] for
twelve Attic [drams], as was sold before for twenty-five. But when this
contrivance was discovered in one instance, the fame of it filled their
several camps, that the deserters came to them full of gold. So the
multitude of the Arabians, with the Syrians, cut up those that came as
supplicants, and searched their bellies. Nor does it seem to me that any
misery befell the Jews that was more terrible than this, since in one
night's time about two thousand of these deserters were thus dissected.

5. When Titus came to the knowledge of this wicked practice, he had like
to have surrounded those that had been guilty of it with his horse, and
have shot them dead; and he had done it, had not their number been so
very great, and those that were liable to this punishment would have
been manifold more than those whom they had slain. However, he called
together the commanders of the auxiliary troops he had with him, as well
as the commanders of the Roman legions, [for some of his own soldiers
had been also guilty herein, as he had been informed,] and had great
indignation against both sorts of them, and said to them, "What! have
any of my own soldiers done such things as this out of the uncertain
hope of gain, without regarding their own weapons, which are made of
silver and gold? Moreover, do the Arabians and Syrians now first of
all begin to govern th