To the Death

by Peter R. Hall

  Vespasian knew there would be hidden watchers. This show of force was designed to give them second thoughts. To make them ask the question, did they really want to face this enemy on the field of battle?

  Among those secretly watching eyes, had been some of Josephus’ men. They had journeyed from Josephus’ camp pitched not far from Sepphoris. When they reported back, Josephus lost half of his force to desertion. Disappointed and angry, Josephus knew that he no longer had enough men to challenge the enemy.

  Worse still, he knew from the mutterings in the camp that many of his troops would ask for terms if they got the chance.

  23

  In Jerusalem John’s men spread the word that, in a bid to stay in power, Ananus had sent emissaries to Rome to parlay for peace; a deal that would keep the High Priest of all Israel and the city’s ruling class in power. As John plotted to take control of Jerusalem, he accused Ananus of betraying the people. He then turned his attention to the rank and file of the priesthood, persuading many that Ananus had betrayed them. John also wrote to the Idumaeans, claiming that Ananus was a traitor who, in a bid to stay in office, was secretly negotiating to hand over the country and the Holy City to the Romans.

  John’s men we so persuasive in spreading the lie of Ananus’ treachery, they even convinced Simon ben Gioras. Even so, John was skating on thin ice. Appealing to the Idumaeans was a risky business.

  John’s recruiting of Gioras to ask the Idumaeans for assistance was a masterpiece of duplicity. Gioras’ envoys to the Idumaeans would claim that the forces of evil, in the form of Ananus and the priests loyal to him, had formed an alliance with the city’s ruling classes. To save their own skins and cling onto power, they were prepared to surrender the Holy City to the Romans.

  The Idumaeans, in spite of a blood relationship uniting them to the Jews, had a history of resentment. Southern Judaea had been settled by the Edomites, an Arab people, who had taken over all of southern Palestine making Hebron their capital. When the Israelites had won back all of these gains they allowed them to remain in the country on the condition that they converted to Judaism.

  Gioras, ever distrustful of John, had reasoned that if he agreed to manage the negotiations to the Idumaeans, he could turn it to his advantage. In the event of relationships becoming strained at some point in the future, he would be remembered by the Idumaeans as the person who had promoted their interests. Knowing the nature of the Idumaeans, Gioras was confident they would agree. As a race they were fiery by nature; resentful of discipline but susceptible to flattery; ready to take up arms at the merest suggestion of offence.

  The two envoys were chosen for their political skills. Both were fluent and persuasive speakers. The Idumaeans, who had been monitoring the war, were deeply angered by what was taking place in Jerusalem. They were a receptive audience and voted overwhelmingly to give their support to the rebels.

  Meanwhile Ananus, unaware that envoys had been sent to what he regarded as an old enemy, was horrified when he learned that the Idumaeans had decided to side with the Zealots. With the Idumaeans on their way, he barely had time to close and bar the city entrances and post extra men on the wall, when their army of twenty five thousand horse and foot arrived at Jerusalem’s gates.

  The High Priest was desperate to try and defuse the situation. Fearing that he, personally, might not go down too well as an advocate for peace, he decided his deputy would make the appeal. So taking his stand on a tower facing the Idumaeans, Jeshua made his plea.

  “God’s Holy City is being fought over like a bone by dogs who have gathered the support of bandits and criminals. Godless scum, who have ravaged the whole country before entering the Holy City. Even as I speak, they carouse drunkenly in the sanctuary. If you had been invited by the city fathers to join us against an outside enemy, you would be welcome. What reason, what cause has brought you here? If it was the lie that we were going to sell God’s City to the Romans, it is the peddler of this filthy treason, offensive in the sight of God that you should seek out. You are free to enter the city of God, though not by force, to see for yourselves that what I tell you is the truth. So called nationalists have entered the very heart of the nation - The Temple - which they have made their headquarters for their operations against us. Lay down your arms. Come into the city by right of kinship to serve as judges in this matter. But know that while you bear arms, these gates will remain shut.”

  Jeshua’s speech failed to persuade the Idumaean rank and file, who were angry at not being freely admitted. Simon, son of Cathla, one of their leaders, managed to silence the angry shouting of his men and addressed the priest. “You are willing to admit the Romans and deny your kin entry. We have of course” he said sarcastically “come to attack our own people, we who have answered the call to help you stay free. We Idumaeans will defend the house of God. We, the men you are excluding from our ancestral rights! We Idumaeans will defend the Temple and the city and fight for our common cause, resisting the enemy from without and the traitors within. We shall stay here as soldiers of God.”

  This speech was wildly cheered by the Idumaeans, not that they were in any way appeased, boiling with anger at their reception and exclusion from the capital, bewildered that the zealots who had called them in had not come to their aid. They could not go home. The disgrace of doing nothing was unthinkable, so they settled down as best they could in a makeshift camp outside the city gates. During the night, a massive thunderstorm struck the city and the camp. Lightning flashed continuously and thunderclaps bursting repeatedly made speech impossible. Both the Idumaeans and the people in the city saw this as a portent of disaster, an omen that heralded a terrible catastrophe.

  So the Idumaeans sheltered beneath their shields, waiting stoically for the storm to end, while the zealots met to discuss how they might help them. Eventually, under the cover of the storm, they forced the locks of the city gates and admitted the Idumaeans, whose first thoughts were to join forces with the zealots.

  Once inside, their combined forces attacked Ananus’ citizen army. In a nightmare scene, the two sides came together in the fractured dark. In desperate hand to hand combat, the war cries of the Idumaeans were echoed by the zealots. The thunderous noise, coming from all sides, was amplified by the raging storm. No-one was spared and any who begged for mercy by reminding the Idumaeans of ties of blood, were killed. Crushed by the shields of the advancing combined forces, Ananus’ men were cut down by a vengeful enemy bent on their absolute destruction.

  When dawn broke, a watery sun illuminated the outer court of the Temple, revealing its walls, pillars and floor running with the blood of the nine thousand who had perished in the battle.

  After the briefest of respites, the Idumaeans turned on the city, looting and killing indiscriminately.

  Ananus and his deputy Jeshua, unwilling to flee the Temple, died on their knees, calling on God to avenge them.

  With the priests of Israel floating face down in blood, the Idumaeans and the zealots seemed to lose all reason. They fell on the population like wolves. Ordinary citizens were rounded up and murdered out of hand in frenzied attacks that were indifferent to age or gender. The wealthy of the city, along with its councillors and men of noble birth, were singled out for execution. Ten thousand of the city’s best men died in this manner. Their bodies, refused to their families for burial, were left to putrefy in the streets.

  Eventually the killing madness lifted. Men weary with the effort of wielding swords, stopped in mid stroke. Like sleepers awakening from a deep sleep, they looked at their hands and arms black with blood, their bodies blooded to the chin. In a daze they came together, suddenly aware of what they had done and were ashamed.

  Later, one of the zealot leaders, Benjamin, came to the Idumaeans to ask for a meeting. “I am deeply sorry” he said, “for the part I have played in these events, as are many of my brothers. I think” he continued after a pause, “I think in the heat of the moment, we went too far. You answered our call for help in good
faith, for which you have our thanks. But what” he continued soberly “has happened here was not what was intended and for which we must answer to God.”

  There was a murmur of agreement from the Idumaeans. Eventually their Chief, Simon of Cathla, spoke “The allegation of treason was not proved. We acted in haste and are guilty of many excesses that were jointly committed. We came in good faith to help you in your hour of need. We leave you filled with sorrow at your lack of respect and evil behaviour.”

  In the Roman camp, deserters brought before Titus gave him detailed information of these internal divisions. Such news was welcomed, Titus’ comment to his men being “While the Jews kill each other with such ferocity, they do our job for us. We would be foolish to distract them.”

  When his men begged him to march on the city, he answered “To do so would only give them cause to reunite.” Titus preferred to let the civil war run its course, saying “The gods, even the Jewish God, is handing the Jews over to us without our having to lift a finger. They must” he concluded with a grin “have managed to displease both, so calamitous is their situation.” Titus was also grateful for the Jews fighting each other, because as they grew weaker he grew stronger, able at last to rest his legions which had been fighting in Judaea for four years, only being taken out of the line when the opportunity presented itself.

  From the news the deserters brought him Titus knew the Jews were not using this time to continue manufacturing weapons, reinforce their defences and train the refugees. Instead they were being weakened by dissention and the civil war they were waging. Just as keen as the Romans were to capture deserters alive, the warring factions wanted them dead, so escape had been made difficult. Every exit was guarded and anybody attempting to leave the city was summarily executed. The exceptions were the lucky and the wealthy. The latter could buy their way over the walls. The poor died. Hedges of dead bodies lined the main roads. Many who would have fled the city stayed knowing they would die. They stayed in the hope of a burial in Jerusalem.

  Amid the horrors of the city, pity itself died. Paralysed with fear, the starving citizens envied the dead. They were at peace.

  Even in death, there were priests and men of learning who reminded any who would listen of the ancient prophecy “If the people turn against each other and pollute the Temple, it will be destroyed and God’s Holy City will be conquered in war.”

  The Zealots, disbelieving the truth of this, refused to change their course, believing that in the end they would triumph.

  John was prepared to die, trying to fulfil his ambition of being the sole ruler of the nation. To further these ends he gradually built up a separate army, recruiting the cruellest, most vicious and brutal criminals who would fight and kill for money. Everything he did was aimed at securing sole sovereignty. Many gave way to him through fear. Some were genuine followers for he was skilled at persuading people to his cause and generous with the money he had stolen. However, many of his followers left him, as the alliance with the zealots began to break up. Many hated the idea of a King, so they opposed him. The one thing the rebels had in common, irrespective of their allegiances, was that every man chose to face the war with all its miseries, rather than give up his liberty.

  The city was now at the mercy of three momentous calamities - war, tyranny and fundamentalism. Now a fourth calamity was coming, in the form of Gioras, who had holed up in Masada.

  As lawlessness spread, every local headman turned minor warlord began plundering the neighbourhood with impunity, before disappearing with his supporters into the desert bad lands. In fact, every corner of Judaea was going the same way as the capital, as Jew killed Jew, murdering blood relations without a second thought.

  24

  The Arab mercenaries were facing west, their faces lit by the sunset. The image of the mountain and the dying light falling on its flanks was reflected in their eyes. They waited quietly, patiently; night ambushes were not a thing to rush. Outside the walls of Gabara, a few gaunt, mange stained camels settled in the dust. A boy leading some scurvy donkeys hurried to a gate before it was slammed shut for the night, the evening air redolent with the indistinguishable smells that accompany humans in tight quarters. Soon it would be owl light.

  They squatted on their haunches, waiting, watching. Sharp faced men, lean and hard, who fought for money. Their sullen eyes betrayed their meanness of character, their hard jaws their lack of pity. At the last moment they would enter the town, their task to murder the guards of the western gate and open it to Vespasian’s army. Their reward – anything they could steal.

  Clad in black from head to toe with only their eyes uncovered, they flitted silently as shadows to a chosen spot of the town’s defensive wall. At a hand signal from their leader, a rope attached to a muffled grappling iron had them on top of the wall in minutes. Invisible in the shadows they waited for the patrolling guards who, peering outwards, died silently from a blade thrust from behind.

  Minutes later, Vespasian’s men stepped over the dead guards and crept into the town. The gate through which they had gained entrance was not the main gate, but a minor portal used principally by garbage carts.

  Vespasian’s soldiers, surprised to find the walls virtually without sentries and the main gate guarded by old men, had it open in seconds and a hundred archers through it in a heartbeat.

  In minutes, Vespasian’s army had marched into town. In hours they had sacked it. The able bodied males were taken as slaves; the rest of the population were put to the sword. After ransacking the town for anything of value, which included its food stores, it was burnt.

  Meanwhile Josephus, who had journeyed to Tiberius, found himself unwelcome. When they suggested he would betray them to Rome to save his own skin, he decided to write to the authorities in Jerusalem. His letter would be an objective analysis of the situation. If they agreed with him, then the logical thing to do would be to sue for terms. If that was the case, he would be prepared to act as the nation’s advocate. If they were set on continuing to fight the Romans, they must send him trained recruits.

  Vespasian, sensing the tide was with him, was now keen to attack the city of Jotapata, for his intelligence had informed him that a large number of the enemy had taken refuge there. They had done so because the town was a natural fortress that Josephus had reinforced with new walls and towers.

  He immediately despatched a legion to force-march ahead of his main army. With them went a substantial number of specialist engineers and road builders, charged with turning a tortuous stony mountain track into a road. Meanwhile Josephus, who had left Tiberius a week earlier, slipped into Jotapata just in time to lift the spirits of the despondent Jews. When Vespasian learned of this from a deserter, he was delighted. Without hesitation he ordered Placidus to take a thousand horsemen to put a ring around the town a mouse couldn’t get through. This was done with the express purpose of preventing Josephus escaping.

  The next day, Vespasian and the entire army arrived after force marching until dusk, taking his army to the high ground north of the town, three quarters of a mile from its walls, to ensure the Jews would see just how big an enemy they would be up against. His aim was to dampen the spirits of those inside.

  Vespasian, satisfied that his ploy had worked, rested his troops who were weary after twelve hours of marching; although he did place a double line of archers around the town, with a third ring of cavalry, to deter any attempt at leaving. With no hope of escape, and determined not to surrender, the Jews did not give way to despair. On the contrary they vowed to sell their lives dearly. The next morning the Jews formed up outside the city walls in a direct challenge to the Roman forces.

  Vespasian responded by deploying his archers, slingers and long range artillery, ordering them to keep up a steady barrage. Using this as cover, he then ordered heavy infantry to assault the wall at its weakest point. Josephus, seeing the danger, ordered the whole Jewish garrison to storm the advancing Roman infantry, driving them back from the wall in hand to hand
fighting. With neither side willing to give ground, they both suffered heavy losses. The Jews with nothing to lose and the Romans filled with pride were locked in mortal combat, hacking and stabbing at each other in a kind of madness that lasted the whole day.

  At nightfall the combatants staggered apart bearing their wounded away. They left behind a battlefield muddy with blood and carpeted with body parts. The fallen, heaped in grotesque mounds, bore silent witness to the animal courage displayed by both sides.

  The next day, with the stars paling in the east, both sides readied themselves to resume hostilities. The Jews, seeing the forces ranged against them, prepared to march out and do battle. Shivering in the cold air, men coughed to clear their lungs before strapping on their armour. They met like pit-bulls, mad with the scent of blood, both sides determined to carry the day.

  In a desperate attempt to gain the advantage, more and more men were committed to the madness in front of Jotapata’s walls, but to no avail. Neither side would give an inch. The combatants stood on the bodies of the fallen to get at each other. Neither would respond to the orders of their commanders to disengage. Throughout the day Roman and Jew fought each other breast to breast, eye to eye, in a primordial frenzy. Only darkness once again forced the adversaries apart.

  For five more days the two sides engaged one another, the Jews’ determination and fighting spirit never wavering. The Romans, their pride hurt, knew that their honour was at stake. For them there was no possible outcome other than death or victory, though the difficulty of taking the town was becoming more and more apparent.

  Jotapata is perched on the edge of a cliff, a precipice of sheer rock protected on three sides by deep ravines. Josephus had taken advantage of this when he built the town’s walls. A circle of natural rock curtains shielded the town so effectively as to become part of its fortifications.