Come, then, take up again the fifth book of the Histories of Josephus, and go through the tragedy of what was then done. “For the wealthy,” he says, “to remain was equal to destruction; for on the pretext of intended desertion a man would be murdered for the sake of his property. And the madness of the rebels grew with the famine, and both terrors were kindled the more from day to day.”
“No grain was anywhere to be seen openly; but they would burst in and search the houses. Then, if they found any, they tormented the people for having denied it; and if they found none, they tortured them for having hidden it too carefully. The bodies of the wretched ones were the proof whether they had it or not; those still in good condition seemed to be well supplied with food, while those already wasting away were passed by, and it seemed unreasonable to kill those who would soon die of want.”
“Many secretly bartered their possessions for a single measure — of wheat, if they happened to be richer, of barley if poorer. Then, shutting themselves up in the innermost parts of their houses, some, from extreme want, would eat the grain unprepared, while others would bake it, as necessity and fear advised.”
“No table was anywhere set; but snatching the food still raw from the fire, they tore it in pieces. Pitiable was their fare, and a sight worthy of tears, the stronger getting more than their share and the weak lamenting.”
“Famine indeed surpasses all sufferings, and it destroys nothing so much as shame; for what is at other times worthy of reverence is in it despised. Wives snatched the food from their husbands, children from their fathers, and — most pitiable of all — mothers from their infants, out of their very mouths; and while their dearest ones were wasting away in their arms, there was no sparing in taking from them the last drop of life.”
“Yet even while eating thus they were not undetected; everywhere the rebels descended upon them for these plunderings as well. For whenever they saw a house shut up, this was a sign that those within were taking food; and at once, bursting open the doors, they rushed in, and all but squeezed up the morsels out of their very throats.”
“Old men were beaten for clinging to their food, and women were dragged by the hair for hiding what was in their hands. There was no pity for grey hairs or for infants; but they would lift up the little children who clung to the morsels and dash them upon the ground. To those who had anticipated their inrush and swallowed beforehand what was to be plundered, they were the more savage, as though they had been wronged.”
“They devised dreadful methods of torture in their search for food, stopping up the private passages of the wretched victims with bitter vetch and impaling their seats on sharp stakes. A man suffered things terrible even to hear, to make him confess one loaf, and to disclose a single handful of hidden barley-meal.”
“But the torturers themselves were not hungry — for indeed their cruelty would have been less had it sprung from necessity — rather they were exercising their madness, and laying up provisions for themselves for the days to come.”
“When some crept out by night to the Roman outposts to gather wild vegetables and herbs, the rebels met them, just when they thought they had at last escaped the enemy, and snatched away what they had brought. Often, though the men entreated them and called upon the most awful name of God to share with them some portion of what they had fetched at peril of their lives, they gave them nothing whatever; and it was a thing to be thankful for, not to be slain as well after being robbed.”
To these things, after some other matters, he adds, saying: “For the Jews, with the closing of the exits, all hope of safety was cut off. And the famine, deepening, fed upon the people house by house and family by family. The roofs were filled with women and infants in their last gasp, and the alleys with the corpses of old men.”
“Children and young men, swollen up, wandered like phantoms through the market-places and fell down wherever the agony seized them. The sick had not strength to bury their own kin, and those still in vigour shrank from it, both because of the multitude of the dead and because of the uncertainty about themselves. Many indeed died upon those they were burying, and many went forth to the tombs before their fate had come upon them.”
“There was no lamentation amid these calamities, nor any wailing, but the famine stifled the emotions; with dry eyes those who were dying in agony gazed upon those who had found rest before them. A deep silence enveloped the city, and a night laden with death; and worse than these were the robbers.”
“Breaking into the houses like grave-robbers, they plundered the dead, stripping the coverings from the bodies, and went out laughing. They tested the edges of their swords on the corpses, and to prove the steel they ran some of those cast out, still living, through; but those who begged them for the use of their right hand and sword they left to the famine in their arrogance. And each of those breathing his last gazed steadfastly toward the temple, leaving the rebels behind alive.”
“At first they ordered the dead to be buried out of the public treasury, since they could not endure the stench; afterwards, when they were no longer able to do so, they threw them from the walls into the ravines. When Titus, going round these ravines, saw them filled with the dead, and a deep ichor oozing from the decaying bodies, he groaned, and raising his hands he called God to witness that this was not his doing.”
Having said something more between, he goes on: “I would not shrink from declaring what my emotion bids me say: I think that, had the Romans delayed against these guilty men, the city would either have been swallowed up by a chasm, or overwhelmed by a flood, or have shared the thunderbolts of Sodom; for it bore a generation far more godless than those who suffered those things. By their madness the whole people perished together.”
And in the sixth book he writes thus: “Of those destroyed by the famine throughout the city, the multitude fell beyond counting, and the sufferings that came about were beyond telling. For in every house, if anywhere there appeared a shadow of food, it was war, and the dearest of kin came to blows with one another, snatching away the wretched provisions of life. Not even to the dying was there any credit given for their distress.”
“Moreover, the robbers searched even those still breathing, lest anyone, having food beneath his garment, should feign death. And these, gaping with want like mad dogs, staggered and reeled about, dashing against the doors like drunken men, and in their helplessness rushed into the same houses two or three times in a single hour.”
“Necessity drove everything to their teeth, and gathering what was not fit even for the filthiest of brute beasts, they endured to eat it. In the end they did not abstain even from belts and shoes, and they stripped the leather from their shields and chewed it. To some, fragments of old hay were food; for some gathered the fibres and sold a tiny weight of it for four Attic drachmas.”
“And what need is there to tell of the shamelessness of the famine toward inanimate things? For I will set forth a deed of it such as has been recorded neither among Greeks nor among barbarians — dreadful to tell, and incredible to hear. And for my part, lest I should seem to be inventing marvels to men of later times, I would gladly have passed over the calamity, were it not that I have countless witnesses among my contemporaries. Besides, I should render but a cold favour to my country by suppressing the account of what its sufferings actually were.”
“A woman of those dwelling beyond the Jordan, Mary by name, daughter of Eleazar, of the village of Bethezub (which signifies ‘house of hyssop’), distinguished for her birth and her wealth, had fled with the rest of the multitude to Jerusalem and was being besieged along with them.”
“The tyrants had plundered the rest of her possessions, all that she had packed up and brought from Perea into the city; and as for the remnants of her treasures, and whatever food might be thought of, the guards would burst in daily and snatch it away. A terrible indignation came over the woman, and often, reviling and cursing the plunderers, she provoked them against herself.”
“But when no one would slay her, either in anger or in pity, and she grew weary of finding food for others, while everywhere it was now impossible even to find it, and the famine pierced through her bowels and her marrow, and her passions blazed more fiercely than the famine, taking wrath and necessity for her counsellors she proceeded against nature; and seizing her child — she had a son still at the breast —”
“‘Wretched babe,’ she said, ‘amid war and famine and faction, for what shall I keep you? Among the Romans is slavery, even if we should live to reach them; but the famine forestalls even slavery; and the rebels are more cruel than both. Come, be food for me, and to the rebels a Fury, and to the world a tale — the one thing yet wanting to the calamities of the Jews.’”
“And with these words she slew her son. Then, having roasted him, she ate half, and the rest she covered up and kept. Immediately the rebels were at hand, and catching the smell of the unholy savour, they threatened, unless she showed them what had been prepared, to slaughter her at once. But she said that she had kept a goodly portion for them as well, and uncovered the remains of her child.”
“At once horror and frenzy of mind seized them, and they stood transfixed at the sight. But she said, ‘This is my own true child, and the deed is mine. Eat, for I too have eaten. Do not be softer than a woman, nor more compassionate than a mother. But if you are scrupulous and turn away from my sacrifice, then I have eaten for you, and let the rest also remain for me.’”
“After this they went out trembling, cowards in this one thing, and scarcely yielding even this food to the mother. And straightway the whole city was filled with the abomination, and each one, bringing the horror before his eyes, shuddered dreadfully as though the deed had been dared by himself.”
“Those who suffered famine made haste toward death, and they counted blessed those who had departed before hearing and seeing such evils.” Such was the recompense of the lawlessness and impiety of the Jews against the Christ of God.