those quarters, but set the strongest of his men at the place
where the wall was broken down, and before them all six men by
themselves, among whom he took his share of the first and
greatest danger. He also gave orders, that when the legions made
a shout, they should stop their ears, that they might not be
affrighted at it, and that, to avoid the multitude of the enemy's
darts, they should bend down on their knees, and cover themselves
with their shields, and that they should retreat a little
backward for a while, till the archers should have emptied their
quivers; but that When the Romans should lay their instruments
for ascending the walls, they should leap out on the sudden, and
with their own instruments should meet the enemy, and that every
one should strive to do his best, in order not to defend his own
city, as if it were possible to be preserved, but in order to
revenge it, when it was already destroyed; and that they should
set before their eyes how their old men were to be slain, and
their children and wives were to be killed immediately by the
enemy; and that they would beforehand spend all their fury, on
account of the calamities just coming upon them, and pour it out
on the actors.

26. And thus did Josephus dispose of both his bodies of men; but
then for the useless part of the citizens, the women and
children, when they saw their city encompassed by a threefold
army, (for none of the usual guards that had been fighting before
were removed,) when they also saw, not only the walls thrown
down, but their enemies with swords in their hands, as also the
hilly country above them shining with their weapons, d the darts
in the hands of the Arabian archers, they made a final and
lamentable outcry of the destruction, as if the misery were not