, on the north side of it. As
the flames went upward, the Jews made a great clamor, such as so mighty
an affliction required, and ran together to prevent it; and now they
spared not their lives any longer, nor suffered any thing to restrain
their force, since that holy house was perishing, for whose sake it was
that they kept such a guard about it.

6. And now a certain person came running to Titus, and told him of
this fire, as he was resting himself in his tent after the last battle;
whereupon he rose up in great haste, and, as he was, ran to the holy
house, in order to have a stop put to the fire; after him followed all
his commanders, and after them followed the several legions, in great
astonishment; so there was a great clamor and tumult raised, as was
natural upon the disorderly motion of so great an army. Then did Caesar,
both by calling to the soldiers that were fighting, with a loud voice,
and by giving a signal to them with his right hand, order them to quench
the fire. But they did not hear what he said, though he spake so loud,
having their ears already dimmed by a greater noise another way; nor did
they attend to the signal he made with his hand neither, as still some
of them were distracted with fighting, and others with passion. But as
for the legions that came running thither, neither any persuasions
nor any threatenings could restrain their violence, but each one's own
passion was his commander at this time; and as they were crowding into
the temple together, many of them were trampled on by one another, while
a great number fell among the ruins of the cloisters, which were still
hot and smoking, and were destroyed in the same miserable way with those
whom they had conquered; and when they were come near the holy house,
they made as if they did not so much as hear Caesar's orders to the
contrary; but they encouraged those that were before them to set it on
fire. As for the seditious, they were in too great distress already to
afford their assistance [towards quenching the fire]; they were every
where slain, and every where beaten; and as for a great part of the
people, they were weak and without arms, and had their throats cut
wherever they were caught. Now round about the altar lay dead bodies
heaped one upon another, as at the steps [16] going up to it ran a great
quantity of their blood, whither also the dead bodies that were slain
above [on the altar] fell down.

7. And now, since Caesar was no wa