Fountain of the Virgin
CHAPTER X.
We have mentioned that Galba had succeeded to the throne of the Roman empire, in the room of the tyrant Nero; and that Vespasian prudently abstained from taking any active measures in Judea, lest he should weaken his forces, but kept them together in readiness for any enterprise that might seem calculated to promote his ambitious views, and hasten the accomplishment of the prophecy that had been pronounced by his Jewish captive, Josephus. Had all the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the neighbouring country improved this season of rest and respite from foreign war, their city might have been better prepared to receive the assaults of the Roman army when at length the siege was determined on; or, better still, they might, by a timely submission, have appeased the anger of the new emperor, whose attention was greatly occupied by the unsettled state of affairs in the regions nearer to the capital of the empire.
But no such salutary and prudent steps were taken by these misguided and rebellious people, who only turned the arms that were no longer exerted against a foreign enemy, with greater animosity against each other. Simon the son of Gioras, the bloody and vindictive Simon, added a third party to those which already distracted the metropolis. This scourge of his country might rival even John of Gischala in cruelty and ferocity, but he was not a match for him in cunning. He had been conspicuous in the rout of Cestius' army, which had occurred at the beginning of the war and since that period he had carried on a course of pillage and violence. He had been expelled from Acrabatana by Ananus, and entering Masada, he had succeeded in making himself master of the town. His party had gradually augmented; and having traversed the region of Idumea with his fierce and victorious band, he at length turned his eyes towards Jerusalem, and began to entertain hopes that he might vanquish the two parties that already contended for the superiority within her walls, and himself become the leader and the chief of all.
When his approach was known in the city, a considerable body of the Zealots sallied forth to oppose him, but they could not stand against his forces, and were driven back again with discomfiture and loss. Simon did not, however, venture to attack the city immediately; but apprehensive of his own strength, he resolved on returning to subdue Idumea before he commenced that enterprise. He therefore placed himself at the head of twenty thousand men, and hastened back to the frontier. The Idumeans speedily assembled to the number of twenty-five thousand and leaving the rest of their forces to guard their families and possessions from the incursions of the robbers from Masada, they met Simon on the borders of their territory, where a long and doubtful contest was maintained the whole day. It is hard to say which party should be called the victors, for Simon retreated to the village of Nam, which he had previously fortified and put in a state of defence, and the Idumeans retired to their own country. But Simon shortly afterwards made another incursion upon them with a still more powerful army, and having pitched his camp before Tekoa, he dispatched one of his associates, named Eleazar, to persuade the garrison of the neighbouring fortress of Herodium to surrender to him. The garrison were so indignant at the proposition that they attacked Eleazar with their drawn swords, and he was obliged to leap from the wall into the deep ditch that surrounded it, where he died on the spot.
The Idumeans dreaded the power and the vengeance of Simon, and they determined, if possible, to ascertain the strength of his army before they again met him in battle; and one of their princes, named Jacob, offered to accomplish this object. But he was a traitor, and only sought the opportunity of betraying his country into the hands of her enemy. He went from Colures, which was the head-quarters of the Idumeans, to the camp of Simon, and immediately made an agreement to assist him in reducing the whole country to his subjection, on condition that he himself should be well treated, and rewarded with riches and honours. To these terms Simon promised a ready compliance, and having regaled him with a grand entertainment, he dismissed him with extraordinary courtesy. Jacob was elated with the prospects which he saw before him; and on returning to his countrymen, he endeavoured to alarm them by a false account of the forces of Simon, describing them as much more numerous than they really were. He afterwards tried various arts and persuasions with the princes and the chief men, separately, to induce them to lay down their arms, and receive Simon as their governor; and while he was thus treacherously endeavouring to weaken the courage and corrupt the fidelity of his countrymen, he secretly sent to Simon, desiring him to commence the attack, and promising that he would disperse the Idumeans. To effect this, as soon as the enemy approached, he mounted his horse and pretended to take flight, followed by those whom he had already made his accomplices; and the rest of the army, being seized with a panic, left their ranks and fled away towards their homes.
Thus, almost without bloodshed, Simon entered the country, took the ancient city of Hebron, and wasted all the neighbourhood. Marching from thence, he ravaged the whole land of Idumea, and carried off all the provisions and cattle of the wretched inhabitants. His army had increased to such a multitude from the number of irregular troops who followed him, that the country could not furnish necessaries for them; and the consequent distress of the peasantry, added to the cruelty of Simon, made them groan beneath the weight of their accumulated misfortunes. Simon's army carried desolation wherever they turned: they burned some places, and pulled down others; seized and destroyed whatever fell into their hands, and trampled under-foot every species of vegetation, so that the land became a desert, and appeared as if it had never been cultivated. These proceedings against their former allies added fury to the resentment of the Zealots, and yet they dared not meet the destroyer in open battle; but having placed ambuscades along the road, by which they were informed the wife of Simon was to pass, they succeeded in carrying her off a captive to Jerusalem, with several of her attendants. They hoped by these means to bring Simon to terms, for they knew that the loss of his wife would distract him; and therefore they expected that in order to obtain her release he would bind himself by an agreement that they might dictate. But the feelings of Simon were not to be acted upon in the manner which they anticipated: instead of approaching their walls a humble suppliant for the restoration of his wife, he came raging like a wounded beast of prey. All who ventured to set their foot outside the gates, to gather olives in the gardens or bring in other necessaries, were seized by his watchful emissaries, and brought to their savage master, who put them to death, without distinction of age or sex, after inflicting on them unparalleled torments. He is said to have been hardly restrained from tearing their flesh with his teeth, so ungovernable was his fury and vengeance. Some of his victims he spared from death only to inflict on them a worse punishment; for he cut off both their hands, and in this mutilated condition sent them back into the city, with orders to tell the leaders, that Simon had sworn by the Almighty, that if they did not immediately restore his wife to him, he would break through their walls, and treat in the same barbarous manner all who were within the city, without any distinction. This dreadful threat alarmed the people, and even the Zealots. In hope of appeasing their furious enemy, they sent out his wife to him, on which he laid aside his intention of an immediate slaughter, and withdrew his army from the walls.
During the preparations for his departure, a party of his sentinels brought into the camp a young Jew, whom they had discovered lurking among the neighbouring hills, and apparently watching their motions with great anxiety. He fled at their approach, but they pursued and caught him, and now conducted him into the presence of Simon as a spy. The young man had a bold and crafty countenance; and his appearance bespoke that he had endured much hardship and fatigue; but he almost trembled at the fierce aspect of the son of Gioras, whose character was doubtless well known to him. Simon sternly demanded who he was, and what had brought him so near his camp; and believing that deceit could not, in this instance, be of any advantage to him, Javan (for it was him) replied:—