s concern was to exclude them in their flight from
getting into the village; and causing his horse to march continually on
that side of them, he then turned short upon them, and at the same time
his men made use of their darts, and easily took their aim at those that
were the nearest to them, as they made those that were further off turn
back by the terror they were in, till at last the most courageous of
them brake through those horsemen and fled to the wall of the village.
And now those that guarded the wall were in great doubt what to do;
for they could not bear the thoughts of excluding those that came from
Gadara, because of their own people that were among them; and yet, if
they should admit them, they expected to perish with them, which came
to pass accordingly; for as they were crowding together at the wall, the
Roman horsemen were just ready to fall in with them. However, the guards
prevented them, and shut the gates, when Placidus made an assault upon
them, and fighting courageously till it was dark, he got possession
of the wall, and of the people that were in the city, when the useless
multitude were destroyed; but those that were more potent ran away, and
the soldiers plundered the houses, and set the village on fire. As for
those that ran out of the village, they stirred up such as were in the
country, and exaggerating their own calamities, and telling them that
the whole army of the Romans were upon them, they put them into great
fear on every side; so they got in great numbers together, and fled to
Jericho, for they knew no other place that could afford them any hope of
escaping, it being a city that had a strong wall, and a great multitude
of inhabitants. But Placidus, relying much upon his horsemen, and his
former good success, followed them, and slew all that he overtook,
as far as Jordan; and when he had driven the whole multitude to the
river-side, where they were stopped by the current, [for it had been
augmented lately by rains, and was not fordable,] he put his soldiers
in array over against them; so the necessity the others were in provoked
them to hazard a battle, because there was no place whither they could
flee. They then extended themselves a very great way along the banks of
the river, and sustained the darts that were thrown at them, as well as
the attacks of the horsemen, who beat many of them, and pushed them into
the current. At which fight, hand to hand, fifteen thousand of them were
sl