Fall of Herodio-Machaerus-Masada-Fate of Josephus-Agrippa-Berenice

It might have been expected that all hopes of resistance, even among the most stubborn of the Jews, would have been buried under the ruins of the capital; that after the fall of Jerusalem, with such dreadful misery and carnage, every town would at once have opened its gates, and laid itself at the mercy of the irresistable [irresistible] conqueror. Yet, when Lucilius Bassus came to take the command of the Roman army, he found three strong fortresses still in arms-Herodion, Masada, and Machærus [Machaerus], beyond the Jordan relying on its impregnable position, defied all the power of the enemy. Machaerus stood on the summit of a lofty crag, surrounded on all side by ravines of enormous depth, which could not easily be crossed, and could not possibly be filled up. One of these ravines, on the western side, ran down, a distance of nearly eight miles, to the Dead Sea. Those to the north and the south were less deep, but not less impassable: on the east the hollow was 175 feet to the bottom, beyond which arose a mountain which faced Machaerus. The town had been built and strongly fortified by Alexander Janneus, as a check upon the Arabian freebooters. It was a place of great beauty, as well as strength, adorned with noble palaces, and amply supplied with reservoirs of water. Bassus determined to form the siege on the eastern side; the garrison took possession of the citadel, and forced the strangers, who had taken refuge there from all quarters, to defend the lower town. Many fierce conflicts took place under the walls; the garrison sometimes surprising the enemy by the rapidity of their sallies: sometimes when the Romans were prepared for them, being repulsed with great loss. There happened to be a young man, named Eleazer, of remarkable activity and valour [valor], who greatly distinguished himself in these attacks, being always the first to charge and the last to retreat, often by his single arm arresting the progress of the enemy, and allowing his routed compatriots time to make good their retreat. One day, after the battle was over, proudly confident in his prowess and in the terror of his arms, he remained alone without the gate, carelessly

conversing with those on the wall. Rufus, an Egyptian, serving in the Roman army, a man of singular boddy [body] strength, watched the opportunity, rushed on him, and bore him off, armour [armor] and all, to the Roman camp. Bassus ordered the captive to be stripped, and scourged in the sight of the besieged. At the sufferings of their brave champion the whole city set up a wild wailing. Bassus, when he saw the effect of his barbarous measure, ordered a cross to be erected, as if for the execution of the gallant youth. The lamentations in the city became more loud and general. Eleazer's family was powerful and numerous. Through their influence it was agreed to surrender the citadel, on condition that Eleazer's life should be spared. The strangers in the lower town attempted to cut their way through the posts of the besiegers; a few of the bravest succeeded; of those who remained, 1700 perished. The treaty with the garrison was honourably [honorably] observed.

Bassus proceeded to surround the forest of Jardes, where a vast number of fugitives had taken refuge: they attempted to break through, but were repulsed, and 3000 put to the sword. During the course of these successes Bassus died, and Flavius Silva assumed the command in Palestine. Silva immediately marched against Masada, the only place which still held out. Masada was situated on the south-western side of the Dead Sea. Like the other hill fortresses of Palestine, it stood on a high rock, girt [girded] with a precipitous chasms, the side of which a goat could scarcely clamber. It was accessible only by two narrow and very difficult paths, from the east and from the west. On the east, a path, or rather a rocky stair, led up from the shore of the Dead Sea, called the Serpent, from its winding and circuitous course. It ran along the verge of frightful precipices, which made the head giddy to look down; it was necessary to climb step by step; if the foot slipped, instant death was inevitable. After winding in this manner nearly four miles, this path opened on a level space, on which Masada stood, in the midst of a small and highly cultivated plain of extraordinary beauty and fertility. The city was girt [girded] with a wall, nearly a mile in circuit. The wall was twenty-two feet high, fourteen broad, and had thirty-seven lofty towers. Besides this wall, Masada had a strong and magnificent palace, with sixty towers, built by Heron, on the western cliff, and connected, by an underground way, with the citadel. The western ascent was commaaded [commanded], in its narrowest part, by an impregnable tower.

The city was amply supplied with excellent water, and with provisions of all kinds, wine, oil, vegetables, and dates. According to the strange accoant [account] of Josephus, the air of Masada was of such a temperature, that, although some of these fruits had been laid up for a hundred years, since the time of Herod, they were still sound and fresh. There were likewise armories, sufficient to supply 10,000 men with great stores of unwrought iron, brass, and lead. In fact, Masada had been the fortress which Herod the Great had always looked to as a place of security, either in case of foreign invasion, or the revelt [revolt] of his own subjects. The town was now as sternly manned as fortified. Eleazer, the commander, was a descendant of Judas the Galilean, and inherited the principles of his ancestor in their sternest and most stubborn fanaticism. To yield to a foreign dominion was to him and his zealous associates the height of impiety: death was far preferable to a treacherous dereliction of the sovreignty [sovereignty] of God. They acted, to the end, up to their lofty tenets.

Silva, having blockaded the town, so that none could make their escape, seized a point of rock, called the White Promontory, to the westward. There he erected his works, a mound, 350 feet high, and above that a second bank of enormous stones; and at length he brought a battering ram to bear upon the walls. After long resistance, a breach was made; but the besieged had run up another wall within, of great timbers laid parallel with each other, in two separate rows, the intervening space being filled with earth; this sort of double artificial wall was held together by transverse beams, and the more violently it was battered it became more solid and compact by the yelding [yielding] of the earth.-Silva ordered his men to throw lighted brands upon it: the timbers speedily kindled, and the whole became a vast wall of fire. The north wind blew the flames into the faces of the besiegers, and the

Romans trembled for their own works and engines. On a sudden, the wind shifted to the south, the flames burned inwards, and the whole fell down, a heap of smouldering [smoldering] ashes. The Romans withdrew to their camp, to prepare for the attack on the next morning, and stationed strong and vigilant outposts to prevent the flight of the garrison. But Eleazer was not a man either himself to attempt flight or to permit others to follow so dastardly a course. He assembled his followers in the palace, and reminded them that the time was now come when they must vindicate to the utmost their lofty principles. God had evidently abandoned his people; the fall of Jerusalem, the ruin of the temple, too sadly proved this. The sudden change of the wind, on the day before, distinctly announced that they too were deserted by his protecting providence. Still it was better to fall into the hands of God, than of the Roman; and he proposed that they should set the city on fire, and perish together with their wives unviolated, their chieren [children] yet free from captivity, on that noble funeral pile.

His men gazed on each other with wonder. Some were kindled at once with his enthusiasm; others thought of their wives and children, and tears were seen stealing slowly down their hardy cheeks.-Eleazer saw that they were wavering, and broke out in a higher and more splendid train. He spake of the immortality, the divinity of the soul; its joyful escape from its imprisonment in its mortal tenement. He appealed to the example of the Indians, who bear life as a burthen [burden], and cheerfully throw it off. Perhaps with still grater [greater] effect he dwelt on the treatment of the conquered by the Romans, the abuse of women, the slavery of children, the murderous scenes in the amphitheatres [amphitheaters]. "Let us die," he ended, "unenslaved; let us depart from life in freedom with our wives and children.-This our law demands, this our wives and children entreat; God himself has driven us to this stern necessity; this the Romans dread above all things, lest we should disappoint them of their victory. Let us deny them the joy and triumph of seeing us subdued, and rather strike them with awe at our death, and with enforced admiration of our indomitable valour [valor]."

He was interrupted by the unanimous woice [voice] of the multitude, vying with each other in eagerness to begin on the instant the work of self-devotion. On their intoxicated spirits no softer feelings had now the slightest effect. They embraced their wives, they kissed their children even with tears, and, at the moment, as though they had been the passive instruments of another's will, they stabbed them to the heart. Not a man declined the murderous office. But they thought that they should wrong the dead if they survived them many minutes. They hastily drew together their most valuable effects, and heaping them up, set fire to these sumptuous funeral piles. Then, ten men having been chosen by lot as the general executioners, the rest, one after another, still clasping the lifeless bodies of their wives and children, held up their necks to the blow. The ten then cast lots, nine fell by each other's hands, the last man, after he had carefully searched whether there was any more work for him to do, seized a lighted brand, set fire to the palace, and then with resolute and unflinching hand, drove the sword to his own heart.

One old woman, another female who was a relative of Eleazer and distinguished for her learning, and five children, who had crept into an underground cavern, were all that escaped; 960 perished. The next morning the Romans advanced to the wall in close array and with the greatest caution. They fixed the scaling ladders, mounted the wall, and rushed in. Not a human being appeared, all was solitude and silence, and the vestiges of fire all around, filled them with astonishment. They gave a shout as they were wont when they drove the battering ram, as if to startle the people from their hiding places. The two women and the five children came creeping forth. The Romans would not believe their story, till having partially extinguished the fire, they made their way into the palace, and, not without admiration, beheld this unexampled spectacle of self-devotion.

Elders Brigham Young, H. C. Kimball, John Taylor, G. A. Smith and R. Hadlock, have arrived at home in safety, after an ardious [arduous] and interesting mission to Great Britain. The remainder of the Twelve are expedited soon.

The accounts which they bring of the progress of truth are highly satisfactory.

Times and Seasons.

City of Nauvoo,

Thursday, July 25, 1841.