men that were forcing their way forward, they were
compelled to fly into their enemies' houses, which were low;
but these houses being thus full, of soldiers, whose weight they
could not bear, fell down suddenly; and when one house fell, it
shook down a great many of those that were under it, as did those
do to such as were under them. By this means a vast number of the
Romans perished; for they were so
terribly distressed, that although they saw the houses
subsiding, they were compelled to leap upon the tops of
them; so that a great many were ground to powder by these
ruins, and a great many of those that got from under them lost
some of their limbs, but still a greater number were suffocated
by the dust that arose from those ruins. The
people of Gamala supposed this to be an assistance afforded
them by God, and without regarding what damage they
suffered themselves, they pressed forward, and thrust the enemy
upon the tops of their houses; and when they
stumbled in the sharp and narrow streets, and were
perpetually falling down, they threw their stones or darts at
them, and slew them. Now the very ruins afforded them
stones enow; and for iron weapons, the dead men of the
enemies' side afforded them what they wanted; for drawing the
swords of those that were dead, they made use of them to despatch
such as were only half dead; nay, there were a great number who,
upon their falling down from the tops of the houses, stabbed
themselves, and died after that manner; nor indeed was it easy
for those that were beaten back to fly away; for they were so
unacquainted with the ways, and the dust was so thick, that they
wandered about without knowing one another, and fell down dead
among the crowd.