ungovernable; for when the enemy had retired to their
highest fastnesses, you ought to have restrained yourselves,
and not, by presenting yourselves at the top of the city, to be
exposed to dangers; but upon your having obtained the lower parts
of the city, you ought to have provoked those that had retired
thither to a safe and settled battle; whereas, in rushing so
hastily upon victory, you took no care of your safety. But this
incautiousness in war, and this madness of zeal, is not a Roman
maxim. While we perform all that we attempt by skill and good
order, that procedure is the part of barbarians, and is what the
Jews chiefly support themselves by. We ought therefore to return
to our own virtue, and to be rather angry than any longer
dejected at this unlucky misfortune, and let every one seek for
his own consolation from his own hand; for by this means he will
avenge those that have been
destroyed, and punish those that have killed them. For
myself, I will endeavor, as I have now done, to go first before
you against your enemies in every engagement, and to be the last
that retires from it."

7. So Vespasian encouraged his army by this speech; but for the
people of Gamala, it happened that they took courage for a little
while, upon such great and unaccountable success as they had had.
But when they considered with themselves that they had now no
hopes of any terms of accommodation, and reflecting upon it that
they could not get away, and that their provisions began already
to be short, they were exceedingly cast down, and their courage
failed them; yet did they not neglect what might be for their
preservation, so far as they were able, but the most courageous
among them guarded