FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS, a famous Jewish historian, was born at Jerusalem, in 37 A.D.; died at Rome about 100 A.D. He belonged to a priestly family. He went early to Rome, and was there at the time of the imprisonment of the apostle Paul. He became a favorite of the Roman government and lived on a pension granted by Vespasian. His works include: History of the War of the Jews against the Romans, and the Fall of Jerusalem," Antiquities of the Jews," and his “Autobiography." His work, while intensely interesting to the historical student, has been often challenged in regard to its accuracy. DESCRIPTION OF JERUSALEM 1. Jerusalem, fortified by three walls-except where it was encompassed by its impassible ravines, for there it had but a single rampart-was built, the one division fronting the other, on two hills, separated by an intervening valley, at which the rows of houses terminated. Of these hills, that on which the upper town is situated is much the higher, and straighter in its length. Accordingly, on account of its strength, it was styled the Fortress by king David, the father of Solomon, by whom the temple was originally erected; but by us, the Upper Market-Place. The other, which bears the name of Acra, and supports the lower town, is of a gibbous form. Opposite to this was a third hill, naturally lower than Acra, and formerly severed from it by another broad ravine. Afterwards, however, the Asmonæans, during their reign, filled up the ravine, with the intention of uniting the city to the temple; and leveling the summit of Acra, they reduced the elevation, so that the temple might be conspicuous above other objects in this quarter also. The Valley of the Cheese-makers, as it was designated, which divided, as we have said, the hill of the upper town from that of the lower, extended as far as Siloam, as we call it, a fountain whose waters are at once sweet and copious. On the exterior, the two hills on which the city stood were skirted by deep ravines, so precipitous on either side that the town was nowhere accessible. 2. Of the three walls, the most ancient, as well from the ravines which surrounded it, as from the hill above them on which it was erected, was almost impregnable. But, besides the advantages of its situation, it was also strongly built; David and Solomon, as well as their successors on the throne, having devoted much attention to the work. Beginning on the north at the tower called Hippicus, and extending to what was called the Xystus, it then formed a junction with the council-house, and terminated at the western colonnade of the temple. On the other side towards the west, beginning at the same tower, it stretched through Bethso, as it was styled, to the gate of the Essenes, It then turned, and advanced with a southern aspect above the fountain of Siloam, whence it again inclined, facing the east, towards Solomon's reservoir, and extending to a certain spot designated Ophla, it joined the eastern colonnade of the temple. The second had its beginning at the gate which they called Oennath, belonging to the first wall. It reached to the Antonia, and encircled only the northern quarter of the town. The tower Hippicus formed the commencement of the third wall, which stretched from thence towards the northern quarter, as far as the tower Psephinus, and then passing op posite the monuments of Helena, Queen of Adiabene, and mother of king Izates, and extending through the royal caverns, was inflected at the corner tower near the spot known by the appellation of the Fuller's Tomb; and, connecting itself with the old wall, terminated at the valley called Kedron. This wall Agrippa had thrown around the new-built town, which was quite unprotected; for the city, overflowing with inhabitants, gradually crept beyond the ramparts; and the people, incorporating with the city the quarter north of the temple close to the hill, made a considerable advance, insomuch that a fourth hill, which is called Bezetha, was also surrounded with inhabitants. It lay over against the Antonia, from which it was separated by a deep fosse, purposely excavated to cut off the communication between the foundations of the Antonia and the hill, that they might be at once less easy of access, and more elevated. Thus the depth of the trench materially increased the altitude of the towers. The quarter most recently built was called, in our language, Bezetha, which, if translated into the Greek tongue, would be Canopolis (New-town). Those who resided there requiring defence, the father of the present sovereign, and of the name, Agrippa, commenced the wall we have mentioned. But, apprehending that Claudius Cæsar might suspect from the magnitude of the structure that he entertained some designs of innovation and insurrection, he desisted when he had merely laid the foundations. For, indeed, had he completed that wall upon the scale on which it was begun, the city would have been impregnable. It was constructed of stones twenty cubits long and ten broad, fitted into each other in such a manner that they could scarcely have been undermined with iron, or shaken with engines. The wall itself was ten cubics in breadth; and it would probably have attained a greater height than it did, had not the enterprising spirit of its founder met with a check; but subsequently, though the work was carried on with ardor by the Jews, it only rose to the height of twenty cubits; while, crowning this, were battlements of two cubits, upon parapets of three cubits in altitude, so that it attained in its entire elevation twenty-five cubits. 3. On this wall were erected towers, twenty cubits in breadth, and the same in height, square, and solid as the wall itself. In the joining and beauty of the stones, they were nowise inferior to the temple. Over the solid altitude of the towers, which was twenty cubits, were sumptuous apartments; and above these, again, upper rooms, and numerous cisterns therein to receive the rain-water, and to each room wide staircases. Of such towers the third wall had ninety, disposed at intervals of two hundred cubits. The middle wall was divided into fourteen towers, and the ancient one into sixty. Of the city, the entire circuit was thirty-three furlongs. But admirable as was the third wall throughout, still more so was the tower Psephinus, which rose up at the north-west angle, and opposite to which Titus encamped. Being seventy cubits high, it afforded at sunrise a prospect of Arabia, and of the limits of the Hebrew territories as far as the sea; it was octagonal in form. Over against this was the tower Hippicus, and near to it two others, all erected by king Herod in the ancient wall, which, in magnitude, beauty, and strength, exceeded all that the world could produce; for, with a taste naturally magnificent, and ambitious of decorating the city, the king further sought, in the surpassing splendor of these works, to gratify his private feelings, and dedicated them to the memory of the three persons to whom he had been most tenderly attached, and after whom he named the towers his brother, his friend, and his wife. The last mentioned, as we have above related, he had put to death through wounded love; the two former he had lost in war, fighting gallantly. Hippicus, so called from his friend, was quadrangular, its length and breadth being each twentyfive cubits, and to the height of thirty cubits it was solid throughout. Above this solid part, which was constructed of stones formed into one compact mass, was a reservoir to receive the rain, twenty cubits deep, over which was a house of two stories, twentyfive cubits high, and divided into various apartments. Above this were battlements of two cubits in height, mounted upon parapets of three; so that the entire altitude amounted to eighty cubits. The second tower, which he named Phasaëlus, from his brother, was of equal length and breadth, forty cubits each, and the same in solid height. Over this, and embracing the whole of the structure, was a gallery, ten cubits high, defended by breast-works and battlements. Above this, and rising from its center, was built another tower, containing sumptuous apartments, and also a bath; so that nothing was wanting to impart to this tower the aspect of a palace. Its summit was more richly ornamented with battlements and parapets than that just described, and its entire altitude was about ninety cubits. In appearance it resembled the tower of Pharos, which serves as a lighthouse to those sailing to Alexandria, though it was much greater in circumference. At this date it was the seat of Simon's tyranny. The third tower, Mariamne-for such was the queen's name was solid to the height of twenty cubits; its breadth, also, being twenty cubits, and its length the same. Its upper apartments were more sumptuous and elegant than those of the other towers, the king thinking it more suitable that that named from a woman should be more highly ornamented than those called after men, just as they |