Jews over come by Baffus.

Majada bejieged.

The defpe rate end of

the beeged.

to furrender, upon condition that they should have liberty to retire whitherfoever they pleafed; which being readily granted to them, they went and joined some of their revolted brethren, who had fheltered themselves in the foreft of Jardes. Thither Baffus advancing, attacked and, after a defperate combat, totally defeated them, with Judas their chief, who had efcaped from Jerufalem through one of the aqueducts of that city ".

Death having prevented Baffus from putting an end to the war, Flavius Silva, his fucceffor, affembled all his forces to attack Maffada, now the only remaining fortress in the hands of the rebels. The place was prodigiously ftrong, both by art and nature, well fupplied with provifions, and defended with a good number of ficarii and affaffins; at the head of whom was Eleazar, the grandfon of Judas the Gaulonite. Silva having in vain tried his engines and battering-rams againft it, furrounded it with a high and ftrong wall, and then ordered fire to be fet to the gates. The wind favouring him, drove the flame fo fiercely againft the Jews, that Eleazar, in a kind of defpair, perfuaded them firft to kill all their wives and children, and next to choose ten men by lot, who should kill all the reft; lastly, to pitch upon one individual, out of the furviving ten, to dispatch them and himself; a defperate refolution, which was accordingly executed; only this laft man was ordered to fet fire to the place before he finished this bloody tragedy. Next morning the Romans, preparing to fcale the walls, were ftrangely surprised at the filence which prevailed among the befiegers, none of whom appeared. In order to roufe them, they raised a loud fhout, at which two women, who had concealed themfelves from the maffacre in an aqueduct, came out, and told them the defperate catastrophe of the besieged, which put an end to that dreadful war. Vefpafian ordered the Jewish lands to be fold for his own ufe (H), and all the Jews within the Roman empire were commanded to pay into his treasury the usual tribute of half a fhekel, • Ibid. cap. 28.

n Bell. Jud. lib. vii. cap. 25.
the conditions above mention-
ed (3).

(H) He only referved the
town of Emmaus, which he
bestowed on eight hundred of

his best veterans, to plant a new colony there, and from that time that place took the name of Nicopolis (4).

(3) Bell. Jud. lib. vii. cap. 25, ad fin.

(4) Ibid. cap. 26.

or

or two drachms, which they had been formerly obliged to pay for the use of the fanctuary P.

off.

He likewife caufed all the branches of the house of Ju- The redah to be cut off, to deprive them at once of all hopes of mains of a deliverer, or future Meffiah. Notwithstanding which the royal precaution, the Zealots made feveral attempts to regain family cut their power; firft in Egypt, where it coft fome of them their lives, and occafioned an order to fhut up their temple at Alexandria (I). Next in Cyrene of Libya, where one them, named Jonathan, pretended to be a prophet, and perfuaded about two thousand of his brethren to follow him into the defert, where he promised to fhew them wonders, and where Catullus, the governor, caused them to be pursued and defeated.

r

nice

go to Rome.

After the reduction of Jerufalem and Judæa, Agrippa Agrippa and his fifter retired to Rome, probably with Titus, who and Berewas enamoured of Berenice. We have feen, through the course of this laft war, how serviceable the brother had been to that general, accompanying him in perfon, and affifting him with men and ammunition, for which fervices, we are told, Titus got his kingdom enlarged by the emperor, and procured him prætorian honours. But his extraordinary friendship for that prince flowed chiefly from his fondness for his fifter, who now lived with him in his palace, and ruled every thing as if she had been his tus's parawife. We have hinted fome former reports publicly mour. fpread concerning her inceftuous intrigues with her bro

P Bell. Jud. lib. vii. cap. 26, in fin. i cap. 12.

q Eufeb. Ecclef. Hift. lib.

r Bell. ubi fupra, cap. 30, ad fin.

(1) These wretches, who were undoubtedly the relics of the Gaulonitifh faction, fince even their children fuffered the feverest torments, rather than acknowlege Cæfar for their lord, met at first with a kind reception from their brethren of Alexandria. But they quickly became obnoxious to them by fowing their leaven of fedition. To prevent the ill effects of which, they were delivered up to the Romans, and fix hundred of them put to death.

Vefpafian fearing their A-
lexandrian temple would afford
them a fresh pretence of af-
fembling themselves, and raif-
ing fome new fedition in Egypt,
fent orders to Lupus, his go-
vernor there, to demolish it.
But he contented himself with
fhutting it up. Paulinus, who
fucceeded him foon after, strip-
ped it of all its ornaments and
rich furniture, and caused the
gates of it to be quite walled
up, to prevent any farther
worship being offered up in
it (5).
(5) Bell. Jud. lib. vii, cap. 30, ad fin,
Y 2

ther,

She be

comes Ti.

ther, for which she had given but too much foundation. Titus could hardly be ignorant of thefe reports; but her beauty had fo captivated him, that he overlooked every thing else; infomuch that he had promised her marriage, and would in all probability have kept it, had he not found that the Romans were wholly averfe from it, partly on account of her being a Jewefs, and partly on that of her Difcarded royal defcent. He was therefore obliged to fend her away. As for Agrippa, he was the laft of the Herodian race that bore the royal title, and is supposed to have died at Rome about the feventieth year of his age, and in the 90th of Jefus Christ t.

by him. Agrippa's death, and

end of the Herodian family.

This was the end of the Herodian family, and of the Jewish nation and polity; and is fo much the more remarkable, confidering that the fuccinct account we have of it is written by a Jew of fuch extraordinary character, and that the deftruction of the city and people, efpecially of their temple, is found, upon the whole, fo exactly conformable to the prophecies of Chrift, denounced against them fo long before. One might have expected that this fhould have opened their eyes, to acknowlege thefe, as well as the many others we have mentioned, which prove him the Meffiah, fince they had feen their facrifices, ceremonial law, their temple, their royal ftock of Judah, &c. which they till then thought were to laft for ever, buried under the ruin of their metropolis and commonwealth (K).

s Vid. Sueton. in Vit. Tit. ex Xiphil. ex Dione. Juftus Tiberius apud Phot. Bibl. Cod. 33. Tillemont, Ruine des Juifs, art.

83. & not. 41.

(K) In the mean time it will not be amifs to take notice, that the Jews are no lefs at variance with Jofephus, than the Chriftians have admired him. St. Jerom, among other praises he gives him, calls him the Livy of the Jews (6). Photius, and others, have been equally lavish of their incenfe; and Eufebius adds to the reft, that he had a statue reared to him in confideration of his writings (7). We fhall not repeat what we have often ob

(6) De Vir, Illuft. cap. xiii,

ferved, of his partiality to his na tion, and facerdotal order. But his countrymen have trumped up another Jofephus, known by the name of Bengorion, whofe history is compiled out of the Rufinian verfion of the true Jofephus (for he doth not feem to have feen the original); and is stuffed with the most palpable abfurdities, falfhoods, and con. tradictions; the Jews, notwith. ftanding, beftow on him the highest encomiums. In parti cular, rabbi Tham, who has

(7) Hift. Ecclef. lib, iii. cap. 13. published

W

CHA P. IX.

The Hiftory of Affyria.

SECT. I.

The Defcription of Affyria.

E have already accounted for the name of this Its name. country, deriving it from Afhur, its first planter after the flood; and have observed, that its name extended very far weftward over the whole of Aram, or Syria, which at this time gives appellation to most of the country between the Euphrates and the Mediterranean. Eastward, fouthward, and northward, it must also have extended its name wherever its monarchs had established themselves, by the fortune of their arms.

If we confider the monarchy of Affyria geographically, it comprised several countries, which we have already described; and others which we fhall hereafter specify in their proper places. It is not, therefore, our defign to give here a description of the monarchy or empire of Afsyria, but confine ourselves to the proper Affyria, agreeably to the method we have hitherto pursued.

This country was bounded, according to Ptolemy, on the north by part of Armenia and Mount Niphates; on

his abfurdities in that mutilated. edition which Munster has given us, though he has concealed a great number of them. But those who have feen the large editions that have appeared fince, will find them fo full of errors, that he will readily own, nothing but the greatest degree of infatuation and perverfeness could induce the Jews to prefer him to the true one, who, fetting afide his partiality above mentioned, hath all the marks of a judicious and exact histoof rian (9).

published his hiftory, is not afhamed to affirm, that all he wrote was just, without the leaft mixture of falfhood; that his writings come nearer to thofe of the prophets, than those of any other Jewish author; that the hand of God was upon him whilft he compiled his work; with fome other commendations, which amount almost to blafphemy (8). That fabulous author is fo well known to the learned, that we fhall fpend no time in expofing him. The readers may fee many

(8) Præf. in Jofeph. Bengorion, edit. Conftantinop. 1490. (9) Vid. Bafnag. Hift. Juifs, tom. ix. p. 151, & feq. Prid. Calmet.

& al.

the weft by the Tigris; on the fouth by Sufiana; and, on the east, by part of Media, and the mountains Choatra and Zagros. The country within these limits, is, by fome of the ancients, called Adiabene, and, by others, with the tranfmutation of one letter, as Dio Caffius obferves, Aturia or Atyria. It is divided by Ptolemy into the following provinces or diftricts, Calachene or Calacine, Arrapachitis, Adiabene, Arbelitis, Apolloniatis, Sittacene, and Chalonitis . Calachene was bounded on the north by the mountains of Armenia and Arrapachitis; on the weft by the Tigris; on the east by the Lycus; and on the fouth by Adiabene. It contained the following cities, Marde, Calafh, Beffara, and Refen. Calafh, built by Afhur, as we read in Scripture, gave name to the whole province. Bochart takes this to be the fame city with Halah, where the king of Affyria placed the captive Ifraelites. It stood probably upon, or near the Tigris; for, of the two other cities, built by the fame person, and at the fame time, viz. Nineveh and Refen, the former, we know for certain, stood upon, or near that river; and that the latter had the like fituation, is highly probable, fince it is placed by Mofes between Nineveh and Calafh, or Calah, Bochart conjectures Refen to be the Lariffa of Xenophon, which, according to that historian, stood near the Tigris, and had been formerly a great city, inhabited by the Medes; but was then quite deftitute of inhabitants, and lay in ruins. Of Marde and Beffara we know nothing befides their names.

Arrapachitis, the most northern province of Affyria, is only mentioned by Ptolemy; and the towns he places in it are to us, and feem to have been in like manner to the ancient geographers, utterly unknown. This country was watered, according to Ptolemy, by the Gyndes.

Adiabene was the chief province of Affyria, and fometimes gave its name to the whole country. It was fo called, according to Ammianus, from the two rivers Diaba and Adiaba, Ptolemy and Ammianus place Ninus or Nineveh, Gaugamela, and Arbela, in this province; and with them Strabo agrees; for, though he places Ninus and Gaugamela in Aturia, and Arbela in a district of its own name, yet he makes both Aturia and Arbelis parts of Adiabenes, Pliny too calls Arbelis part of Adiabene 1;