The Jewish War Series (Part 14): May 70 AD–Titus Takes the First and Second Walls

When Titus had come to Jerusalem, he encountered a city that had been effectively under siege by the two remaining zealot leaders long before he had arrived. Simon ben-Gioras maintained control over the upper city and led 10,000 fighters and fifty commanders, along with 8,000 Idumeans and eight of their own commanders, among whom were Jacob ben-Sosas and Simon ben-Cathalas. John of Gischala held the Temple and the immediate area around it, and he led 6,000 fighters with twenty commanders, along with his former zealot adversary Eleazar, as well as Simon ben-Arinus.

And so, with 24,000 zealot fighters within the city walls terrorizing the citizenry, Titus surveyed the outer wall of Jerusalem to find the best spot to focus his assault—he decided it was the part of the wall near the monument of John the high priest. Titus then ordered his soldiers to cut down all the trees in the surrounding territory, set the suburbs of Jerusalem on fire, and collect timber to raise the banks against the city.

Once the banks were raised, Titus moved his siege engines in place and began to lob great boulders at the portion of the wall he deemed was weakest. The first stone was a large, white boulder—and as it hurled through the air toward the wall, the watchmen on the towers cried out to warn their fellow zealots, “The stone is coming!” Interestingly enough, the Hebrew word for “stone” (eben) is similar to the word for “son” (ben)—and some thought the watchmen were crying out, “The Son is Coming!” and interpreted it to mean that the Roman assault on Jerusalem was a fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy forty years prior that God’s wrath would come upon Jerusalem for rejecting him as their Messiah and instead choosing the way of zealotry and revolution.

Soon, the Roman siege engines began battering the outside wall. It was at that time that Simon ben-Gioras made a deal with John of Gischala. Simon would let John and his fighters come out of the Temple area and fight with him against the Romans at the walls. And so, once again, the zealot factions banded together against their common enemy. And as soon as the Romans took a break from battering the walls, Simon and John’s men sallied out of an obscure gate near the Hippicus Tower, caught the Romans by surprise, burned some of the Roman siege works, and assaulted the Romans like madmen. When Titus saw this, he led his personal forces down to the Hippicus Tower and beat the zealot fighters back until they retreated back into the city. During the fighting, Titus captured a handful of zealot fighters and immediately ordered that they be crucified right in front of the city wall, in full view of the city, to send a clear message to the zealots within: death would soon be upon them.

Over the next few days, the Roman siege engines continued their bombardment of the city wall. The most famous of the Roman towers the Jews had named Nico, for it was unstoppable, bringing victory to Rome wherever it engaged in the fighting. And eventually, on the 15^th day of the siege, on the 7^th day of Jyar (that would be either April or May), Nico made a breach in the wall and the Romans took control of the first wall as the zealots retreated back to the second wall.

With the outer wall taken, Titus led his forces into the outskirts of the city and made camp there. The Roman confidence was high—despite a few initial setbacks, they fully expected to be victorious. The might of Rome was unmatched—it was just going to be a matter of time. The zealots, on the other hand, had not yet succumbed to despair. They had great veneration for Simon ben-Gioras and were prepared to fight to the death for him.

The next day, Titus began the Roman assault by moving one of his siege towers to the north part of the second wall. It was then that one of the zealots, Castor, rallied ten zealots in an attempt to trick the Romans once again. They ventured out of one of the gates in the second wall and called to Titus, offering to surrender and begging him for mercy. Titus then called for a temporary halt to the siege preparations and told Josephus to go forward to extend his right hand to Castor and offer him safety. Josephus, though, knew Castor and sensed treachery. And so, he protested to Titus not to listen to Castor. Titus, though, hoped to somehow preserve both the city and the Temple, and thus was hoping there was a way to bring the revolt to a quick end. And so, he convinced a Jew named Aeneas, who had earlier deserted Jerusalem, to go and talk to Castor. Yet as soon as Aeneas was getting close to Castor, Castor’s fellow zealots assaulted Aeneas and his party with stones, and then set fire to the siege engine before retreating back behind the second wall.

Undeterred, the Romans moved another siege tower in place and five days later, on the 12^th day of Jyar, made a breach in the second wall. With the second wall taken so quickly, Titus hoped that it would convince the zealots to realize there was no hope for them, and that it would be better to surrender. And so, Titus decided not to widen the breach in the second wall, and he ordered his soldiers not to kill any Jews they caught or set fire to the houses. Instead, he sent the message that he was prepared to restore everything to any Jew who surrendered to his soldiers, and that he wanted to preserve both the city and the Temple.

The zealots, though, were in no mood to surrender. They immediately threatened to kill any Jew who tried to surrender, and even went so far as to cut the throats of anyone who even talked of making peace with Rome. The zealots knew that by not widening the breach in the wall, the Romans had put themselves at a disadvantage, for they did not have the knowledge of the narrow streets of Jerusalem that the zealots had. Consequently, once the Romans started to advance through the city, the zealots were able to set ambushes for them virtually on every corner, and soon the Roman soldiers were in full-out retreat back to the second wall. Yet since the breach had not been widened, the soldiers essentially bottle-necked at the breach trying to retreat as the zealots continued to attack them.

Titus ordered his archers to shoot arrows at the zealots to provide his soldiers cover to retreat. Yet the zealots had succeeded in driving the Romans back. And even though the breach remained in the second wall, the zealots convinced themselves that the Romans would not dare come back into the city. But as Josephus wrote, God had blinded the minds of the zealots as punishment for all their transgressions and abominations. The zealots had no idea just how superior the Roman forces were, and they did not yet realize just how quickly the famine in the city would come upon them. Already there was almost no food left in the city.

Sure enough, four days later, on the 16^th day of Jyar, Titus’ forces retook the second wall and completely demolished it while the zealot forces retreated deeper into the city, toward the Temple mount.