LTHOUGH the Romans had, with no very great difficulty, succeeded in conquering the Jews before the birth of our Saviour, yet that obstinate people again and again rosein revolt against them, although revolt was quite hopeless. At length Titus, son of Vespasian, was sent to take and destroy Jerusalem. He pushed on the siege, and everything seemed against the Jews, although they stoutly resisted the enemy. Famines, earthquakes, and prodigies occurred together, and devastated them. They were torn into two factions, headed by two demagogues, John and Simon. It was at the Feast of the Passover, when a vast number of people were collected from far and near within the walls of the city, that Titus began the siege in right earnest. For a little external danger quieted internal discord. They determined to attack the Romans, and their first sally, "which was made with much fury and resolution, put the besiegers into great disorder, and obliged them to abandon their camp and flee to the mountains. However, rallying immediately after, the Jews were forced back into the city, while Titus, in person, showed surprising instances of valour and conduct. These advantages over the Romans only renewed in the besieged their desire of private revenge. A tumult ensued in the temple, in which several of both parties were slain; and, in this manner, upon every remission from without, the factions of John and Simon violently raged against each other within, agreeing only in their resolution to defend the city against the Romans. The city was strongly fortified by three walls on every side, except where it was fenced by deep valleys. Titus began by battering down the outward wall, which he effected after much fatigue and danger, all the time showing the greatest clemency to the Jews, and offering them repeated assurances of pardon. Five days after the commencement of the siege Titus broke through the second wall, and, though driven back by the besieged, he recovered his ground, and made preparations for battering the third wall, which was their last defence. But first he sent Josephus, their countryman, into the city, to exhort them to yield, who, using all his eloquence to persuade them, was dismissed with scoffs and reproaches. The siege was now, therefore, carried on with greater vigour than before; several batteries for engines were raised, which were no sooner built than they were destroyed by the enemy. At length it was resolved in council to surround the whole city with a trench, and thus prevent all relief and succours from abroad. This, which was quickly executed, seemed no way to intimidate the Jews. Though famine and pestilence, its necessary attendant, began now to make the most horrid ravages among them, yet this desperate people still resolved to hold out. He now cut down all the woods within a considerable distance of the city, and, causing more batteries to be raised, he at length battered down the wall, and in five days entered the citadel by force. The Jews, however, continued to deceive themselves with absurd and futile expectations, while many false prophets deluded the multitude, declaring they would soon have assistance from God. The heat of the battle was now, therefore, gathered round the inner wall of the temple, while the defendants desperately combated from the top. Titus was willing to save this beautiful structure, but a soldier, casting a brand into some adjacent buildings, the fire communicated to the temple, and, notwithstanding the utmost endeavours on both sides, the whole edifice was quickly consumed. The sight of the temple in ruins effectually served to damp the ardour of the Jews. They now began to perceive that Heaven had forsaken them, while their cries and lamentations echoed from the adjacent mountains. Even those who were almost expiring lifted up their dying eyes to bewail the loss of their temple, which they valued more than life itself. The most resolute, however, still endeavoured to defend the upper and stronger part of the city, named Sion; but Titus, with his battering engines, soon made himself entire master of the place. John and Simon were taken from the vaults where they had concealed themselves: the former was condemned to perpetual imprisonment, and the latter reserved to grace the conqueror's triumph. The greatest part of the populace were put to the sword; and the city was, after a siege of six months, entirely razed by the plough; SO that, according to our Saviour's prophecy, not one stone remained upon another. The numbers who perished in this siege, according to Josephus, amounted to above a million of souls, and the captives to almost a hundred thousand. Whilst the numbers of Josephus are no doubt exaggerated-for it was not yet the day of the critical historian-still, awful indeed must have been the destruction of human life, awful the sum of human misery during this great siege. On the return of Titus and his father, the emperor Vespasian, to Rome, they were accorded a magnificent reception on this great occasion. Among the rich spoils were exposed vast quantities of gold taken out of the temple; but amidst the magnificent profusion, the Book of the Holy Law was not the least remarkable. This was the first time that ever Rome saw the father and son triumph together. Upon this occasion was erected a triumphal arch, on which were inscribed all the victories of Titus 79 over the Jews, and which remains almost entire to this day. Vespasian likewise built a temple to Peace, in which were deposited most of the Jewish spoils; but as for that unfortunate people, they were henceforth doomed to be wanderers on the face of the earth, as they still are to this day. ATRIUM, OR COURT OF A ROMAN MANSION. ROMAN CUSTOMS. MODE OF LIFE IN PEACE AND WAR. EW things are more interesting and instructive than to note the customs of different nations, and to compare them with our own. If we regard the habits of the nations of antiquity, we shall find those of the Romans most worthy of our regard, for that nation was the most powerful, and hence came to be the richest of all the peoples of antiquity. Thus it came to draw to itself all that was most voluptuous, pleasing, and remarkable from all the other nations. It adopted the literature of Greece, the luxuriance of the remote East, and, far before all, the divine religion that had its earthly source in Palestine, at one time almost the most insignificant province of the vast Roman Empire. "The Romans paid the greatest attention to funeral rites, because they believed that the souls of the unburied were not admitted into the abodes of the dead, or, at least, wandered a hun day of the funeral, when the people were assembled, the dead body was carried out with the feet foremost, on a couch covered with rich cloth, with gold and purple, supported commonly on the shoulders of the nearest relations of the deceased, or of his heirs, sometimes of his freedmen. Before the corpse were carried the images of the deceased and of his ancestors, on long poles or frames, in the same form and garb as when alive; but not of such as had been condemned for any heinous crime, whose images were broken. If the deceased had distinguished himself in war, the crowns and rewards which he had received for his valour were displayed, together with the spoils and standards he had taken from the enemy. At the funerals of renowned commanders were carried the images or representations of the countries they had subdued, and the cities they had taken. Behind the corpse walked the friends of the deceased in mourning; his sons with their heads veiled, and his daughters with their heads bare, and their hair dishevelled, contrary to the ordinary custom of both; the magistrates without their badges; and the nobility without their ornaments. The nearest relations sometimes tore their garments, and covered their hair with dust, or pulled it out. The women in particular, who attended the funeral, A beat their breasts and tore their cheeks, although this was afterwards forbidden. dred years along the river Styx, before The Romans at first usually interred their dead, which is the most ancient and most natural method. They early adopted the custom of burning from the Greeks, which is mentioned in the laws of Numa, and of the Twelve Tables; but it did not become general till towards the end of the republic. On the The ancients are said to have buried their dead at their own houses; whence, according to some, the origin of idolatry, the worship of household gods, and the fear of hobgoblins, or spectres in the dark. If the deceased had been a soldier, they threw on the pile his arms, rewards, and spoils. At the funeral of an illustrious commander or emperor, the soldiers made a circuit three times round the pile, from right to left, with their ensigns inverted, and striking their weapons on one another to the sound of the trumpet. As the manes, or shades, |