against them his best generals, of who Julius Severus was the first to be despatched, from Britain, of which he was governor, against the Jews.  He did not venture to attack his opponents at any one point, seeing their numbers and their desperation, but by taking them in separate groups by means of the number of his soldiers and his under-officers and by depriving them of food and shutting them up he was able, rather slowly, to be sure, but with comparatively little danger, to crush and exhaust and exterminate them.  Very few of them survived. [Sidenote:—­14—­] Fifty of their most important garrisons and nine hundred and eighty-five of their most renowned towns were blotted out.  Fifty-eight myriads of men were slaughtered in the course of the invasions and battles, and the number of those that perished by famine and disease and fire was past all investigating.  Thus nearly the whole of Judaea was made desolate, an event of which the people had had indications even before the war.  The tomb of Solomon, which these men regarded as one of their sacred objects, fell to pieces of itself and collapsed and many wolves and hyenas rushed howling into their cities.

Many Romans, moreover, perished in the war.  Wherefore Hadrian in writing to the senate did not employ the opening phrase commonly affected by the emperors:  “If you and your children are in health, it shall be well:  I and the armies are in health.”

[Sidenote:  A.D. 134(?)] Severus [Footnote:  Not the same person as is mentioned in the previous chapter.] he sent into Bithynia, which needed no force of arms but a governor and presiding officer who was just and prudent and had a reputation.  All these qualifications Severus possessed.  And he managed and administered both their private and their public affairs in such a way that we [Footnote:  i.e., “we natives of Bithynia” (Dio’s country).] are still, even to-day wont to remember him. [Pamphylia in place of Bithynia was given into the jurisdiction of the senate and the lot.]

[Sidenote:—­15—­] This, then, was the ending that the war with the Jews took.  A second war was started among the Alani (they are Massagetae) by Pharasmanes.  On Albanis and Media he inflicted severe injury and then laid hold on Armenia and Cappadocia, after which, as the Alani were on the one hand persuaded by gifts from Vologaesus and on the other stood in dread of Flavius Arrianus, the governor of Cappadocia, he stopped. [Envoys were sent from Vologaesus and from the Iazygae; the former made some charges against Pharasmanes and the latter wanted to confirm the peace. [?] [Footnote:  It is impossible to determine, from the date of this fragment, whether the subject should be Hadrian or Antoninus Pius.] introduced them to the senate and was empowered by that body to return appropriate answers; and accordingly he prepared and read to them his responses.]