one part of the army to the other, which prevented the private
excursions of the Jews.

10. And when the bank was now raised, and brought nearer than
ever to the battlements that belonged to the walls, Josephus
thought it would be entirely wrong in him if he could make no
contrivances in opposition to theirs, and that might be for the
city's preservation; so he got together his workmen, and ordered
them to build the wall higher; and while they said that this was
impossible to be done while so many darts were thrown at them, he
invented this sort of cover for them: He bid them fix piles, and
expand before them the raw hides of oxen newly killed, that these
hides by yielding and hollowing themselves when the stones were
thrown at them might receive them, for that the other darts would
slide off them, and the fire that was thrown would be quenched by
the moisture that was in them. And these he set before the
workmen, and under them these workmen went on with their works in
safety, and raised the wall higher, and that both by day and by
night, fill it was twenty cubits high. He also built a good
number of towers upon the wall, and fitted it to strong
battlements. This greatly discouraged the Romans, who in their
own opinions were already gotten within the walls, while they
were now at once astonished at Josephus's contrivance, and at the
fortitude of the citizens that were in the city.

11. And now Vespasian was plainly irritated at the great subtlety
of this stratagem, and at the boldness of the citizens of
Jotapata; for taking heart again upon the building of this wall,
they made fresh sallies upon the Romans, and had every day
conflicts with them by parties, together with all such