se that bare the ensigns
fought hard for them, as deeming it a terrible thing, and what would
tend to their great shame, if they permitted them to be stolen away. Yet
did the Jews at length get possession of these engines, and destroyed
those that had gone up the ladders, while the rest were so intimidated
by what those suffered who were slain, that they retired; although none
of the Romans died without having done good service before his death. Of
the seditious, those that had fought bravely in the former battles did
the like now, as besides them did Eleazar, the brother's son of Simon
the tyrant. But when Titus perceived that his endeavors to spare a
foreign temple turned to the damage of his soldiers, and then be killed,
he gave order to set the gates on fire.

2. In the mean time, there deserted to him Ananus, who came from
Emmaus, the most bloody of all Simon's guards, and Archelaus, the son of
Magadatus, they hoping to be still forgiven, because they left the Jews
at a time when they were the conquerors. Titus objected this to these
men, as a cunning trick of theirs; and as he had been informed of their
other barbarities towards the Jews, he was going in all haste to
have them both slain. He told them that they were only driven to this
desertion because of the utmost distress they were in, and did not come
away of their own good disposition; and that those did not deserve to be
preserved, by whom their own city was already set on fire, out of which
fire they now hurried themselves away. However, the security he had
promised deserters overcame his resentments, and he dismissed them
accordingly, though he did not give them the same privileges that he
had afforded to others. And now the soldiers had already put fire to the
gates, and the silver that was over them quickly carried the flames to
the wood that was within it, whence it spread itself all on the sudden,
and caught hold on the cloisters. Upon the Jews seeing this fire all
about them, their spirits sunk together with their bodies, and they were
under such astonishment, that not one of them made any haste, either to
defend himself or to quench the fire, but they stood as mute spectators
of it only. However, they did not so grieve at the loss of what was now
burning, as to grow wiser thereby for the time to come; but as though
the holy house itself had been on fire already, they whetted their
passions against the Romans. This fire prevailed during that day and t