SECTION III.

THE SAME CONTINUED.

WHY was the death of Festus an unfortunate event for the Jews?

THE death of Festus was a most melancholy event to the Jews, for the firmness and integrity of his character repressed the 'seditious violence of the people, and the general disorders of the country. Albinus his successor, was rapacious, venal, and unprincipled, and his government paved the way for the dreadful calamities which followed. When Gessius Florus A. D. 64. assumed the direction of the province of Judæa, the unhappy people discovered that all their previous miseries were trifling in comparison with the horrors of his bloody and ferocious despotism. More like a sanguinary executioner, than a governor concerned for the prosperity and happiness of his people, this monster of corruption and cruelty, with the most shameless effrontery, connived at the worst depredations of any plundering banditti, if he could only obtain the possession of some of the spoil. His wicked design seemed to be, to goad the oppressed people into open rebellion, to prevent any inquiry into his rapine, oppressions, and murders.

What was the conduct of the prefect of Syria to the Jews?

When Cestius Gallus the prefect of Syria A. D. 66. came into Judæa, the whole multitude of the Jews then assembled at the Passover, implored him to relieve them from the proceedings of a man, whose only object appeared to be the destruction of their country. Gessius Florus jested with their complaints, and insulted them by mocking their miseries; and Gallus, instead of interposing on their behalf with the whole weight of his superior authority, contented himself by saying that he would use his influence with Florus to induce him to mitigate the severity of his

measures.

What calculation relative to the population of Judæa was made on this occasion by Cestius Gallus?

The number of the Jews who surrounded the Syrian governor on this melancholy occasion, he ascertained by a computation which he made in order to prove to Nero the value and the population of the Jewish province. He counted the lambs which were offered at the Passover, and found them to amount to two hundred and fifty-five thousand. Now one lamb never served for less than ten; but sometimes, more especially among the poor, for considerably more than that number. There must then, upon the lowest calculation, have been at least three millions of persons engaged in the services of the temple at this sacred festival at the same time-a prodigious multitude, all oppressed by man, and about to experience to its uttermost, the curse of God.

What portentous warnings were given of the approaching destruction of Jerusalem?

The Jews were not left to their doom without the most awful and portentous warnings. While they were in circumstances of peace and tranquillity, four years before the commencement of the fatal war with the Romans, a man named Jesus, the son of Ananas, began at the feast of tabernacles to predict the destruction of Jerusalem. Without ceasing, he continually cried, "A voice from the East, a voice from the West, a voice from the four winds; a voice against Jerusalem, and against the temple; a voice against the bridegrooms and the brides, a voice against the whole people." By night and by day his melancholy exclamation was heard in the streets of the city; and on the Sabbaths and on other festivals, he repeated the same ominous words in a louder tone, without becoming exhausted by his exertions, or losing the shrill distinctness of his voice. No threatenings, no punishments, no tortures, could deter him from his practice; he uttered no other words but, "Woe, woe to the city and the temple;" though he was scourged before the Roman governor, Albinus, until his bones were visible, he uttered no complaint, no intreaty for mercy, no groan of distress. He continued in his melancholy em

ployment until the siege of Jerusalem was formed, when all at once he changed his exclamation, cried, “Woe, woe to myself;" was instantly struck by a stone thrown into the city by the besiegers, and expired upon the spot. Other prodigies, according to the testimony of the Jewish historian, occurred. On the feast of Pentecost, when the priests entered upon the services of the night in the temple, they heard preternatural sounds, while an awful voice repeated the portentous words, "Let us depart hence.' Another circumstance also took place in the temple of the most appalling description. The great brazen gate on the eastern side of that structure, which was so ponderous, that twenty men were required to move it every night, and which was fastened by vast bolts which were attached to the stone posts, was hurled open by an invisible hand; the guards could scarcely close it again; and the event was understood to denote the opening of the gate to admit the pagan enemies of Jerusalem. A blazing comet, also, which had the appearance of a fiery sword, was suspended over the city for a whole year; and one evening, a little before sunset, chariots and armies were seen in the heavens, threatening the city and the people by their terrible evolutions.

The catastrophe of Jerusalem was approaching; God had abandoned the rebellious people; vengeance overtook them; their tremendous doom was sealed.

What was the immediate origin of the war between the Jews and the Romans?

The immediate origin of the fatal war between the Romans and the Jews, is to be ascribed to a dispute at Cæsarea. During the government of Felix, this dissention attracted the attention, and required the direct intervention, of the Roman authorities. The Jews asserted that Cæsarea belonged to them because it was founded by Herod; the Syrian Greeks affirmed that it had always been a pagan city; and they adduced as evidence, the statues and temples which Herod himself had erected. A decree of Nero decided that the city belonged to the Greeks, and circumstances comparatively trivial produced a general insurrection. A Greek, who owned the ground which environed a synagogue, not only refused to dispose of it to the

Jews at a price far beyond its value, but insulted them by obstructing the approaches to the building, and by erecting the meanest edifices directly around it. This was not all. One Sabbath-day, when the people were going to the synagogue, a Greek began to sacrifice birds immediately in their way; an immediate contest was the consequence; the Jews were defeated; they retired from Cæsarea; thirteen of their principal men requested redress from Florus the governor; he spurned away their application, and ignominiously committed them to prison; it became evident to the Jews that it was his deliberate intention to crush them by the most violent oppressions, and in every quarter they took up arms, and prepared for a war of extermination with the Romans.

What bloody tragedy was acted at Jerusalem by Florus?

The populace had vented their hatred against Florus by the wildest manifestations of contemptuous abhorrence; the governor collected his troops in the palace; he gave the sanguinary mandate of promiscuous slaughter; the exasperated soldiers advanced into the upper market-place; three thousand five hundred men, women, and children, were slain ; some persons of influence and quality, who had not only obtained the privileges of Roman citizenship, but also the honour of knighthood, were first scourged before his tribunal, and then crucified; the intercession of Berenice, then at Jerusalem, in consequence of a vow of Nazariteship of thirty days, was in vain employed to mollify the brutal resentment of Florus; and she was placed in the most imminent personal danger by her interposition on the behalf of her

countrymen.

Proceed with the history.

A, D. 66.

Florus transmitted to Cestius Gallus at Antioch his own representation of his conduct. Cestius sent an officer to inquire into the actual state of affairs at Jerusalem, and Agrippa also repaired to the city. The earnest intreaties of that prince, his representations of the power of the Romans, and of the horrors of civil war, might have allayed the fury of the seditious

populace, had he not attempted to obtain from them, a declaration of allegiance to the authority of Florus until a new governor had been sent from the emperor Nero. This proposition roused them to such a pitch of fury, that they could no longer refrain from acts of violence, they pelted him with stones, and compelled him to leave the city and to retire to his own dominions. The war now commenced, the sword was drawn, and the scabbard was thrown away. Some of the Sicarii having united with the war-party of the Jews, took the strong fortress of Massada from the Romans, and put all the garrison to the sword; the tower of Antonia was captured; the palaces of Agrippa and Berenice, and of Ananias the high-priest were given to the flames; Ananias and his brother, who had concealed themselves were discovered, and slain by the infuriated people; Manahem the son of Judas the Gaulonite was placed at the head of the insurgents, and he soon succeeded in obtaining possession of Jerusalem.

What were the proceedings of the Jewish insurgents?

The

The cruelty of Manahem disgusted the Jews; Eleazar, the son of the murdered Ananias, was at the head of a formidable party in the city; Manahem, who had assumed the pomp and state of royalty, was driven from his station, and soon afterwards killed. conduct of Eleazar rendered the breach between the Romans and the Jews irreparable. Some Roman soldiers had retained possession of some towers in Jerusalem; reduced to the last extremity, they were compelled to surrender upon the promise of their lives; but the treaty was no sooner ratified and the besieged in the power of the conquerors, then they were masacred by the followers of Eleazar, who violated the sanctity of the Sabbath by their perfidious and sanguinary deed.

Describe some dreadful massacres of the Jews?

The successful operations of the Jews, and the vindictive fury which directed their proceedings, brought upon them the most dreadful massacres. At Cæsarea twenty thousand were slain. A still more horrible butchery took place at Scythopolis. The Scythopoli