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"dear father, for unto you it belongeth to command, and for me to obey."
In the first year of the reign of Vespasian Titus mustered his army, and found them sufficient for the siege of Jerusalem. He then marched to Samaria, and from thence to Atelonia, thirty furlongs from Jerusalem, where he pitched his camp, and the next day he brought his whole army to Jerusalem, a little before the feast of the unleavened bread, which was April the 14th, so that an infinite number of people, who came to celebrate were all shut up in the city, which raised a famine; oxen's dung was sold at a dear rate, so was old leather; and some women for want, boiled their children and did eat them.
Now Titus approached the walls of the city, and pitched his camp upon the river Poleponia, raised a mount, and with a battering ram broke into the city, May 7th, and afterwards he raised four other mounts, and made himself master of the second wall, and built twelve castles thereon, so that none could pass in or out, whereby the famine and pestilence raged within, and the sword without the city, so that multitudes perished; for from April the 14th to July following, there were buried by the common charge of the city, 600,000 carcases, and multitudes thrown into empty houses, and over the walls, which filled the houses with dead bodies.
Titus intended to save the temple from fire, when some of the city were in flames, by setting a guard on it, but the seditious who raised the
