troops were on the line Jemmameh-Huj, while mounted troops from Gaza were in contact with strong bodies of the enemy about Beit Hanun, and our infantry had reached the mouth of the Wadi Hesi.

During the night and the morning of Nov. 8 good progress was made, and by 6 P. M. on this day our mounted troops had reached the upper course of the Wadi Hesi, north of Tel el Hesl, [five miles north of Jemmameh,] and had possession

of Huj, where stores of all sorts were on fire. A smart action was fought near Beit Hanun, where Indian Imperial Service Cavalry captured prisoners and a heavy howitzer, while the Scottish troops, now on the right bank of the Wadi Hesi, had captured Herbieh, [eight and one-half miles from Gaza,] and commanded the coastal railway.

Up to Nov. 11 the number of prisoners had reached 5,894, including 286 officers.

Jerusalem in 4,000 Years of War

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By Charles Johnston

ERHAPS it is because of the parable of the New Jerusalem, the City of Everlasting Peace, that we think of the Holy City as framed in perpetual quietude, the shrine of many nations. But in reality Jerusalem is a fortress, more often contested, perhaps, than any city in the world, owing its very existence to the military strength of its situation. In the world war the Turks have sought to defend it and the British have taken it, not as a shrine, but as an outpost of Egypt, a strategical keystone in the fight for Asia Minor and the backlands from the Nile to the Euphrates.

A very ancient tradition, which Flavius Josephus accepts, tells that the hill fort was first chosen and strengthened by Melchizedek, the splendid priestKing to whom Abraham paid a share of his spoils in "the battle of the Kings," in the year which, by a striking coincidence of tradition, is held to be 1917 before our era, within a few generations of 4,000 years ago. But Jerusalem comes for the first time definitely into history nearly 500 years later, when the descendants of Abraham had grown to be a numerous and warlike nation, advancing from the southern desert to conquer the whole region on either side of the tremendous cleft of the River Jordan.

Throughout nearly the whole of the squared 400-mile coast of the Eastern Mediterranean, two mountain chains run parallel with the shore, the one some thirty miles from the sea, the other twenty miles nearer to the eastern

desert. The valley between the ridges, throughout its southern half, is cleft by a cañon, tremendously sheer and deep, through which the Jordan runs, for the most part hidden by the steepness of its inclosing cliffs, to the deep-set caldron of the Dead Sea, which the Arabs call "the Sea of Lot"; for the major part of the history and tradition of this region, like the sacredness of the Holy City itself, is common property for three religions.

A Natural Hill Fortress

The western ridge, whose summit is some thirty miles from the Mediterranean, is for the most part of porous limestone which, under the Spring rains, turns to vivid green embroidered with brilliant flowers; then, as the parched rock drinks up the moisture, turns to withered drab and the brown velvet aridity of Summer. Some fifteen miles due west of the chasm where the Jordan enters the Sea of Lot there is a jutting hill, flat-topped, with a sheer horseshoe ravine falling away from it to the east, the south, and the west, the east end of the horseshoe threaded by a clear streamlet flowing from the north, and later finding its way among brown hills to the Dead Sea. The hill, thus steeply guarded on three sides, was a natural fortress; a wall across the fourth side, the north, would make it secure; further walls, on the three sides already protected by the ravines, would make it almost impregnable. And so we find it the central fortress of the Canaanites, when the

This enormous treasure was a very alluring booty. And, when the old feud between the northern and the southern tribes, which had been closed by David's decisive victory, broke out again between Rehoboam, Solomon's son, and his rival Jeroboam, the Egyptian King, called Shishak in the Hebrew Chronicles, and identified with Seschonchis I. of the twenty-second dynasty, took advantage of the national strife and weakness to raid the hill fortress; he "took away the treasures of the House of the Lord, and "the treasures of the King's house; he "took all: he carried away also the "shields of gold which Solomon had "made, instead of which King Rehoboam "made shields of brass."

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Close of First Epoch

This closes the first epoch of the mountain stronghold above the horseshoe valley. The Temple and palace, diminished in splendor, with the city gradually extending northward and westward over the almost level hilltop, remained the capital of the descendants of David for four centuries. They reigned and died and were gathered to their fathers, buried in rock-hewn tombs in the steep side of the ravine.

Babylon, unto Jerusalem: and he burnt "the House of the Lord, and the King's "house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, "and every great man's house burnt he "with fire. And all the army of the "Chaldees, that were with the Captain "of the Guard, brake down the walls of "Jerusalem round about * * * the

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66 Iremnant of the multitude did Nebuzar"adan the Captain carry away. But the Captain of the Guard left of the poor "of the land to be vinedressers and hus"bandmen. * * *""

This is the great Captivity, which has given birth to so much tragic poetry, like the immortal lament:

"By the rivers of Babylon, there we "sat down, yea, we wept, when we re"membered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows. * *

To that Babylonian Captivity of fifty years belong parts of the prophecies of Jeremiah and the events of the Book of Daniel, culminating in "the handwriting on the wall," announcing the destruction of Belshazzar, the delivery of the kingdom to the Medes and Persians.

Restoration Under Cyrus

These four centuries were not a time of unbroken peace. There was the long feud between the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah centred about the strong hill fortress; and, some 150 years after Solomon's death, the King of Israel “ came to "Jerusalem, and brake down the wall of "Jerusalem from the Gate of Ephraim tion of the Temple and the rebuilding of

"unto the corner gate, four hundred "cubits," that is, 200 yards," and he took "all the gold and silver that were found "in the House of the Lord, and in the "treasures of the King's house, and re"turned to Samaria."

If, as seems likely, the Gate of Ephraim was in the north wall of the city, then Jehoash of Samaria, like nearly all the later assailants of the Holy City, avoided the defenses of the horseshoe ravine and struck at the vulnerable northern side, breaching the wall with battering

rams.

With the reign of Cyrus the Persian came the restoration of Jerusalem, two elements of which stand out: the restora

the broken wall. The Book of Ezra relates the rising of the Temple from its ashes, the memories of old men who had seen Solomon's Temple furnishing the details for this new edition of the Temple under Zerubbabel.

Similarly, the Book of Nehemiah, in a stirring personal narrative, tells of the rebuilding of the wall. This was about the year 445 B. C., bringing us to the threshold of the epoch in which the assailants of Jerusalem are no longer Egypt and Assyria, but Greece and Rome.

We have, so far, spoken of assaults

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against the fortress of Jerusalem. word now as to its defenses. As early as the year 810 B. C. "Uzziah built towers "in Jerusalem at the corner gate, and at "the valley gate, and at the turning of "the wall, and fortified them. * "And he made in Jerusalem engines, in"vented by cunning men, to be on the towers and upon the bulwarks, to shoot arrows and great stones withal." It is a noteworthy fact that, throughout the three millenniums of its military history, practically the same weapons were used both to attack and to defend Jerusalem. The Holy City has never been attacked by firearms; the only artillery used against it was of the character described in the eighth century before our era. We come, therefore, to the period when the fate of Jerusalem turns from the east and the south to the north and west.

Conquered by Alexander

In the year 334 B. C., Alexander of Macedon led his army across the Hellespont into Asia, won the battles of Granicus and Issus and marched southward toward Jerusalem. A dramatic story is told of his coming. As Alexander stood on the heights to the north of the city he saw, with wonder, the North Gate flung open and the High Priest, clad in purple and scarlet, with a mitre on his head and bearing the name of Jehovah on his breast, came forth to meet the conqueror. Behind him followed priests in fine linen robes, and a multitude of people dressed in white, and they all moved slowly up the hill toward him. Alexander went down to meet them, and saluted the High Priest with great reverence, taking him by the hand and entering peacefully with him into the Temple. Thus did Alexan der of Macedon, like King Cyrus before him, become protector of the Holy City

But what the King had spared, one of his Generals destroyed after Alexander's death. Ptolemy, the son of Lagos, occupied Judaea in the year 323 and, seizing Jerusalem by strategy on the Sabbath day, garrisoned the city with Egyp tian troops and annexed it to Egypt in 320.

A century and a quarter later the star of the Ptolemys paled before the house of another of Alexander's Generals.

Antiochus the Great defeated Ptolemy IV.; Jerusalem sided with the victor and helped him to drive the Egyptian garrison out. Antiochus did much to restore and maintain the Temple. This was in 198 B. C.; but in the year 170 Antiochus Epiphanes, aided by a Hellenizing faction within the city, seized Jerusalem, broke down the walls, and erected an altar in the Temple, on which he sacrificed swine as a deliberate act of desecration. The day of this impious act, the 25th of the month Kislev, has >een remembered as a day of mourning.

Under Judas Maccabaeus

Antiochus, though he broke down the outer walls, strengthened the inner fortress called the Akra, or citadel, and left a strong garrison in it; so that when the splendid national revival began, under Judas Maccabaeus, in 165 B. C., though the city was recaptured, the Akra held out. The great court of the Temple was grass-grown and desolate. It was now restored, a new altar was built, and the sacred lamps were relighted, thus establishing the Festival of Lights. Judas Maccabaeus also repaired the walls.

The garrison in the Akra sent an appeal for help, and Antiochus Eupator came to relieve them, having thirty-two elephants in his army. Eleazer, brother of Judas Maccabaeus, was crushed to death by one of them. On the death of Judas Maccabaeus, his brothers, Jonathan and Simon, built a wall completely shutting in the Akra, which Simon finally captured and destroyed, cutting off the hilltop, so that the site of the Temple remained the highest point on the eastern ridge over the Kidron ravine. The Akra was a short distance south of the Temple, on a boss of rock which Simon cut away. Hyrcanus, Simon's son, built the strong tower named Baris on the north of the Temple to protect the vulnerable northern side of the city.

Captured by the Romans

John

The Romans were now to cast their shadow over Jerusalem, a shadow which grew darker until the great destruction. In the year 63 B. C., Pompey, command

ing the Roman armies in the East, marched from Damascus to Jericho and, coming up from the deep cañon of the Jordan, attacked the more modern part of Jerusalem on the western ridge. The eastern city, containing the Temple, and defended by the great tower Baris, held out. Pompey then began the construction of siege works with huge catapults and battering rams, and filled in the moat before Baris, finally capturing both the tower and the Temple. But, having established the Roman power over Jerusalem, Pompey behaved magnanimously; he took none of the treasures of the Temple, but encouraged the Jews to purify it and continue the sacrifices; he recognized Hyrcanus as High Priest.

When Julius Caesar marched through Syria on his way to Egypt, Antipater joined him at Askalon with a force of men, won his favor, and gained permission to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. What is called the Second Wall was built, to take in a new suburb on the north, the only direction in which the city could expand, because of the sheer ravines on the three other sides. From Cassius, Antipater obtained the post of Governor of Galilee for his second son, afterward Herod the Great. Marc Antony gave his support to Herod, but the Parthians aided his rival, Antigonus, in the capture of Jerusalem, which was once more plundered. But Augustus restored Herod to power; Herod attacked and recaptured Jerusalem by making a breach in the fort which guarded the Temple. He rebuilt the fortifications, adding the strong tower Antonia as a citadel, and restored the Temple on the same site and with much the same form as the great Temple of Solomon. In Herod's reign Jerusalem reached the zenith of wealth and magnifi

cence.

Jerusalem Destroyed by Titus His great-grandson, Herod Agrippa, coming to power in 53 A. D., built the Third Wall, taking in a further extension of the city to the north. Flavius Josephus has described the Holy City in great detail, as it was at this time, on the eve of its destruction. Josephus also fully describes the fatal siege, begun by Titus, Vespasian's son, who, in

the Spring of the year 70, brought an army of 40,000 Romans and 20,000 auxiliaries to reassert the power of the Caesars over Jerusalem. Josephus says:

The City of Jerusalem could not possibly have been taken if the Third Wall had been finished in the same manner as it was begun; as it was constructed with stones 30 feet long and 15 feet broad, which could not have been easily undermined by any iron tools or shaken by any engines. * * And now the earthworks were finished, and the Romans brought up their engines; and some of the seditious, already despairing of saving the city, retired from the wall; others hid themselves in the underground passages, though many stood their ground and defended themselves against those that brought up the battering rams. But the Romans overcome them by their numbers and strength, and, what was the principal thing of all, by going cheerfully about their work, while the Jews were already quite dejected and worn out. Now, as soon as part of the wall was battered down and some of the towers yielded to the impression of the battering rams, those that manned the wall fled. Thus

did the Romans, when they had taken such great pains about weaker walls, get by good fortune what they could never have got by their engines; for three of the towers were too strong for any siege engines whatever. *

The Romans, being now masters of the walls, placed their standards upon the towers, and made joyful acclamation for the victory they had gained. *** Rushing into the streets of the city with swords drawn, they slew those whom they met without mercy, and set fire to the houses into which the Jews had fled and burnt every soul in them. They ran every one through whom they met, and blocked up the streets with dead bodies, and made the whole city run with blood, to such a degree, indeed, that the fire of many of the burning houses was quenched with these men's blood. They left off slaying at evening, but the fire greatly prevailed in the night. And the day, when it dawned, found all Jerusalem burning.

This calamity overtook the Holy City on Aug. 12, in the year 70 A. D. Under

Hadrian, the walls were rebuilt, but the

unsuccessful revolt of Bar-cochebas in the year 132, brought destruction again upon Jerusalem, which was transformed into a Roman city with the title Aelia Capitolina; a temple dedicated to Jupiter Capitolinus was on the site of Solomon's Temple.

When, under Constantine the Great,