he had perished in the conflagration, but as a matter of fact he hid himself there with his wife for nine years and had two male children by her.  The troubles in Germany were settled by Cerialis in the course of a number of battles, in one of which so great a multitude of Romans and barbarians both were slain that the river flowing near by was held back by the bodies of the fallen.  Domitian stood in fear of his father because of what he did and still more because of what he intended, for his plans were on no small scale.  He happened to be spending most of his time near the Alban Mount, devoting himself to his passion for Domitia, the daughter of Corbulo.  Her he took away from her husband, Lucius Lamia Aelianus, and at this time he had her for one of his mistresses, but later he actually married her.

[Sidenote:—­4—­] Titus, who was assigned to take charge of the war with the Jews, [undertook to win them over by certain conferences and offers; as they would not yield, he proceeded to direct hostilities.  The first battles he fought were rather close; finally he prevailed and took up the siege of Jerusalem.  This town had three walls including that surrounding the temple.  The Romans accordingly heaped up mounds against the fortifications and brought their engines to bear:  then collecting in a dense force they repulsed all sallying parties and with their slings and arrows kept back all the defenders of the wall.  Many persons that had been sent by some of the barbarian kings they kept prisoners.  The Jews who came to the assistance of their countrymen were many of them from the immediate region and many from kindred districts, not only in this same Roman empire but from beyond the Euphrates, and they, too, kept directing missiles and stones with considerable force on account of the higher ground, some being flung from the hand and some hurled by means of engines.  They likewise made night and day sallies as often as occasion offered, set fire to the engines, slew numerous combatants, and by digging out under the wall took away earth from beneath the mound.  As for the rams, they lassoed some of them and broke the ends off, others they seized and pulled up with hooks, while by means of thick boards well fastened together and strengthened with iron, which they let down against the face of the wall, they turned aside the assaults of the remainder.  The Romans’ chief cause of discomfort was the lack of water; their supply was of poor quality and had to be brought from a distance.

The Jews found their underground passages a source of strength.  They had these affairs dug from within the city out under the walls to distant points in the country, and going out through them they would attack parties in search of water and harass scattered detachments.  Consequently Titus stopped them all up.]