that were exactly obedient; and did every thing they were bidden
upon the least intimation. So they were easily beaten; for as
soon as ever their first ranks were once in disorder, they were
put to flight by the enemy's cavalry, and those of them that came
behind such as crowded to the wall fell upon their own party's
weapons, and became one another's enemies; and this so long till
they were all forced to give way to the attacks of the horsemen,
and were dispersed all the plain over, which plain was wide, and
all fit for the horsemen; which circumstance was very commodious
for the Romans, and occasioned the slaughter of the greatest
number of the Jews; for such as ran away, they could overrun
them, and make them turn back; and when they had brought them
back after their flight, and driven them together, they ran them
through, and slew a vast number of them, insomuch that others
encompassed others of them, and drove them before them
whithersoever they turned themselves, and slew them easily with
their arrows; and the great number there were of the Jews seemed
a solitude to themselves, by reason of the distress they were in,
while the Romans had such good success with their small number,
that they seemed to themselves to be the greater multitude. And
as the former strove zealously under their misfortunes, out of
the shame of a sudden flight, and hopes of the change in their
success, so did the latter feel no weariness by reason of their
good fortune; insomuch that the fight lasted till the evening,
till ten thousand men of the Jews' side lay dead, with two of
their generals, John and Silas, and the greater part of the
remainder were wounded, with Niger, their remaining general, who
fled away together to a small city of Idumea, called Sallis. Some
few also of the Romans were wounded in this battle.