before him as a coward, and one that hindered him from exerting
himself; and while the Jews made use of another stratagem to
prevent their ascent, and poured boiling fenugreek upon the
boards, in order to make them slip and fall down; by which means
neither could those that were coming up, nor those that were
going down, stand on their feet; but some of them fell backward
upon the machines on which they ascended, and were trodden upon;
many of them fell down upon the bank they had raised, and when
they were fallen upon it were slain by the Jews; for when the
Romans could not keep their feet, the Jews being freed from
fighting hand to hand, had leisure to throw their darts at them.
So the general called off those soldiers in the evening that had
suffered so sorely, of whom the number of the slain was not a
few, while that of the wounded was still greater; but of the
people of Jotapata no more than six men were killed, although
more than three hundred were carried off wounded. This fight
happened on the twentieth day of the month Desius [Sivan].
30. Hereupon Vespasian comforted his army on occasion of what
happened, and as he found them angry indeed, but rather wanting
somewhat to do than any further exhortations, he gave orders to
raise the banks still higher, and to erect three towers, each
fifty feet high, and that they should cover them with plates of
iron on every side, that they might be both firm by their weight,
and not easily liable to be set on fire. These towers he set upon
the banks, and placed upon them such as could shoot darts and
arrows, with the lighter engines for throwing stones and darts
also; and besides these, he set upon them the stoutest men among
the slingers, who not being to be seen by reason of the height
they stood upon, and the battlements that protected them, might
throw their weapons at those that were upon the wall, and were