De numero captiuorum et occisorum et perem
The Fall of the City
The historian records the staggering loss of life and the enslavement of the survivors following the city's destruction.
The dead and the captives. I will briefly add, on the authority of the same historian, what the outcome was for those whom such a great disaster befell. The historian mentioned above, in totaling the number of those who perished by famine, thirst, or the sword, recorded it as one million, one hundred thousand. He declared that the rest—the robbers, assassins, and bandits—perished by each other's hands after the city was destroyed. He says that the chosen young men, those distinguished by their physical beauty and height, were reserved for the triumph; the rest who were over seventeen years of age were bound and sent to the mines in Egypt or dispersed throughout the other provinces, some to be handed over to the gladiatorial games, others to the beasts. If any were found to be between seven and seventeen years of age, they were ordered to be sold into slavery throughout the various provinces, and their number reached ninety thousand.
The Fulfillment of Prophecy
The destruction of the city is presented as the inevitable fulfillment of Christ's warnings and divine judgment.
All these things were done in the second year of the reign of Vespasian, just as our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ had predicted; for He saw the things that were to happen as if they were present. Then, as the faith of the Gospels records, seeing the city, He wept over it and spoke these words as if into its very ears: 'If you had known, even you, in this day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, and your enemies will build a rampart around you and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground, and your children within you.' In this way, the many thunders of divine warning echoed publicly in ears that had grown hard, until the blood of the just—and even that of the one unique and singular Just One, who was unjustly shed by the wicked—was sought out by the just judgment of God. They were crushed, therefore, by blows, laid low by wars, and cut off from their ancestral homes by the whirlwind of divine indignation, so that in that most glorious city not one stone remained upon another; and the tribulation of a people who had grown hard—harder than any stone—was such as had not been seen from the time nations began to exist until this very day.
Read the original Latin
ptorum farae. Quem uero tanta calamitas inuenerit exitum, eodem auctore perpaucis adnectam. Colligens enim supra dictus historiographus omnem numerum peremptorum uel fame uel siti uel ferro undecies centena milia designauit. Ceteros uero latrones uel sicarios ac praedones post urbis excidium mutuis declarauit interisse uulneribus. Electos autem quosque iuuenum, quos decor corporis et proceritas commendabat, ad triumphum dicit esse reseruatos, reliquos autem qui supra decem et septem annos agebant etatis, uinctos ad opera Egypti per metalla destinatos uel per ceteras prouincias esse dispersos, alii quidem ut ad ludos gladiatorios, alii ut ad bestias traderentur. Si qui uero intra septimum et decimum etatis reperti sunt annum, per diuersas prouincias in seruitutem distrahi iussi sunt, quorum numerus usque ad nonaginta milia perduetus est. Haec uero omnia gesta sunt secundo anno Vespasiani imperii, iuxta ea quae ipse Dominus et Saluator noster lesus Christus praedixerat; quippe cum ea quae gerenda erant praesentia uideret. Tunc cum secundum euangeliorum fidem uidens ciuitatem fleuit super eam et uelut in auribus eius prolocutus est haec uerba: Si agnouisses, inquit, et tu in hac die quae ad pacem tibi sunt, nunc autem abscondita sunt ab oculis tuis; quia uenient dies in te et circundabunt te inimici tui uallo et circundabunt te et perurgebunt te undique et ad solum redigent te et filios tuos in te.
In hunc modum quam plurima diuinae comminationis tonitrua publice induratis auribus resonabant, quousque sanguis iustorum, sed et ipsius iusti singularis et unici, qui ab impiis inique effusus est, iusto Dei iudicio quaereretur. Attriti sunt ergo plagis, bellis strati, et a patriis sedibus diuinae indignationis excisi turbine, ut in urbe gloriosissima nec lapis super lapidem remaneret; fuitque populi indurati et quouis lapide durioris tribulatio tanta quanta non fuit ex quo gentes esse coeperunt usque ad diem hanc.
Policraticus companion
Study the argument weekly; pray the tradition daily
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