During the siege of Jerusalem, it is computed by Josephus and Milman that 1,100,000 Jews were killed, and 97,000 were taken prisoners; before the siege, under Vespasian, 129,500 perished; after the fall of Jerusalem, 8,660 more were slain; making a total of 1,356,460 Jews who lost their lives in the war with the Romans. Of prisoners, in Gischala, 2,200 were taken; near the Jordan, 2,500; making, with the 97,000 at Jerusalem, 101,700.
How are the mighty fallen! The heritage of Jerusalem henceforth is to be poverty, ruin, and disgrace, “in the midst of her enemies.” Milman in his History of the Jews (Milman and Josephus have been our authority almost entirely in the foregoing articles) says: “It has probably witnessed a far greater portion of human misery than any other spot upon earth.”
The soldiers of Titus left in charge of Terentius Rufus, or Turnus Rufus, as the Rabbins call him, always speaking his name with bitter hatred, having nothing to do after the terrible work of carnage, had leave to raze the city, which they so utterly demolished that it would never have been known that Jerusalem had been inhabited. Jesus had predicted, “There shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” Luke 21:6. “The soil is [now] mixed179with the rubbish of ages to the depth in some places of forty feet.”—Bible Dictionary.
Titus greatly praised and rewarded all those who had been especially brave during the war, giving crowns of gold on their heads, giving them long spears of gold, and other ornaments, and advancing them all to a higher rank. After mutual congratulations and well-wishes of himself and the whole army, he proceeded to offer a vast number of oxen as a thank-offering, and distributed them to his men to feast upon, which they did for three days.
The tenth legion was permitted to stay in Jerusalem; the twelfth, which had fled under Cestius, he sent, to disgrace them, entirely out of Syria to Melitene, near the Euphrates. Two legions he retained with him. He then went to Cæsarea, where he laid up great quantities of spoils. Winter prevented his taking the miserable multitude of captives he had with him to Rome. He left them here, except seven hundred of the tallest and finest looking (including Simon and John), which had been set apart for his triumph. At Cæsarea Philippi 2,500 Jews perished fighting as gladiators or with wild beasts. It was on the occasion of the birthday of Domitian, Titus’ brother. Their father’s birthday was also celebrated in the same manner.
He journeyed on to the Euphrates. In all the cities of Syria through which he passed, he indulged the people with those “horrible spectacles which are the eternal disgrace of the Roman character,” celebrating his victory in the death of five Jews.
During his journey he showed but one act of mercy to the Jewish race. At Antioch an apostate Jew had exasperated the Greek inhabitants by accusing his countrymen of endeavoring to burn the entire city, for which many of them had been burned alive. After an important part of the city had been burned, including the royal palaces and the archives, or the place where the public records were kept, it was ascertained that it had been fired by some wicked persons, who, to avoid paying their debts, had burned the records of them. However, the citizens petitioned Titus very earnestly to expel them from the city or to cancel their privileges. Titus gave no reply; but on his return from the Euphrates said: “The country of the Jews is destroyed; thither they cannot return; it would be hard to allow them no home to which they may retreat; leave them in peace.”
This was only the beginning of the manifestation of that cruel injustice which, down through the ages since, has made the Jews responsible for many great evils which have befallen the places where they have lived. Titus passed by the ruins of Jerusalem on his way from Antioch to Alexandria. If his hard heart was touched with pity at its utter desolation in contrast with its former glory, how must the unfortunate Jews have felt! The Romans dug up among the ruins much treasure of gold and silver and “precious furniture,” but far more was recovered by the Jews themselves, who knew where they had concealed it, under ground, against the uncertainties of war. Thus from the smoldering ruins of desolated Jerusalem sprung up the inalienable legacy of the only kind of riches, moneyed property, which the Jews have ever since possessed.
Arriving at Alexandria, Titus dismissed the two legions who were with him, to go where they were before the war began, while he went to Rome by sea. After settling the affairs of the empire, Vespasian, who had very recently come to the throne, had built a very beautiful temple of Peace in which he deposited pictures, statues, and curiosities from all parts of the world. In this edifice he placed the golden vessels which had been taken from the temple at Jerusalem; and the book of the law and the “purple veils” of the holy place were laid up in the royal palace. Yet, nothing is said of the ark of God. As the most sacred, precious treasure in Jerusalem, had it been in the temple it would certainly have been mentioned. We are elsewhere told what became of it. “Before the temple was destroyed, God made known to a few of his faithful servants the fate of the temple, which was the pride of Israel, and which they regarded with idolatry while they were sinning against God. These righteous men, just before the destruction of the temple, removed the sacred ark containing the tables of stone, and with mourning and sadness, secreted it in a cave where it was to be hid from the people of Israel because of their sins, and was to be no more restored to them. That sacred ark is yet hid. It has never been disturbed since it was secreted.”—Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 1, p. 414.
The Romans in Italy received Titus with every demonstration of joy and pride. For the awful work of slaughter and desolation they had accomplished, Titus, with his father, Vespasian, were thought deserving of a triumph which was more magnificent than any that had ever preceded it. “Besides the usual display of treasures,—gold, silver, jewels, purple vases, and the rarest wild beasts from all quarters of the globe,—there were extraordinary pageants, three or four stories high, representing, to the admiration and delight of those civilized savages, all the horrors and miseries of war; beautiful countries laid waste; armies slain, routed, led captive; cities breached by military engines, stormed, laid waste with fire and sword; women wailing; houses overthrown; temples burning; and rivers of fire flowing through regions no longer cultivated or peopled, but blazing far away into the long and dreary distance. Among the spoils, the golden table, the seven-branched candlestick, and the book of the law from the temple of Jerusalem, were conspicuous.”—Milman.
The captive Jews themselves were highly adorned. The crowning triumph of the procession, showing, according to the Roman custom, the complete victory obtained, was the execution of the bravest general of the enemy, which lot, as we have seen, fell to Simon, son of Gioras.