[414] Hegesippus, a Greek author of the second century, wrote an account of the Jewish war, and of the destruction of Jerusalem; said to have been translated into Latin by St. Ambrose. He also wrote an ecclesiastical history, in five books, a fragment of which only remains.
[415] “The siege of Antioch commenced on the 21st of October, 1097, and ended 3rd June, 1098.”—Hardy.
[416] Pharsalia, iv. 579.
[417] The balista was a warlike engine for casting either darts or stones: the petrary, for throwing large stones only.
[418] Owing to the scarcity of fuel.
[419] “Phirouz, a Syrian renegade, has the infamy of this perfidious and foul treason.”—Hardy.
[420] “In describing the host of Corbaguath, most of the Latin historians, the author of the Gesta, (p. 17,) Robertus monachus, (p. 56,) Baldric, (p. 3,) Fulcherius Carnotensis, (p. 392,) Guibert, (p. 512,) William of Tyre, (lib. vi. c. 3, p. 714,) Bernardus Thesaurarius, (c. 39, p. 695,) are content with the vague expressions of ‘infinita multitudo,’ ‘immensum agmen,’ ‘innumeræ copiæ,’ ‘innumeræ gentes.’ The numbers of the Turks are fixed by Albertus Aquensis at two hundred thousand, (lib. iv. c. 10, p. 242,) and by Radulphus Cadomensis (c. 72, p. 309) at four hundred thousand horse. (Gib. Decl. Rom. Emp. vii. pp. 364, 5.)”—Hardy.
[421] The greatest part of their march is most accurately traced in Maundrell’s Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem.—Hardy.
[422] The church of St. Mary, at Bethlehem, contained within its walls a sort of grotto, in which it was pretended Christ was born.—See Bede, de Locis Sanctis.
[423] “Jerusalem was possessed only of the torrent of Kedron, dry in summer, and of the little brook or spring of Siloe, (Reland, tom. i. pp. 294, 300). Tacitus mentions a perennial fountain, an aqueduct, and cisterns of rain-water. The aqueduct was conveyed from the rivulet Tekoe, or Etham, which is likewise mentioned by Bohadin, (in Vit. Saladin. p. 238.)”—Hardy.