[Sidenote:—­5—­] In the course of these operations many on both sides were wounded and killed.  Titus himself was struck on the left shoulder by a stone, and as a result of this accident the arm was always weaker.  After a time the Romans managed to scale the outside circle, and, pitching their camps between the two encompassing lines of fortification, assaulted the second wall.  Here, however, they found the conditions confronting them to be different.  When all the inhabitants had retired behind the second wall, its defence proved an easier matter because the circuit to be guarded was so much less.  Titus, accordingly, made anew a proclamation offering them immunity.  They, however, even under these circumstances held out.  And the captives and deserters from the enemy so far as they could do so unobserved spoiled the Roman water supply and slew many men that they could cut off from the main force, so that Titus refused to receive any of them.  Meantime some of the Romans, too, growing disheartened, as often happens in a prolonged siege, and furthermore suspecting that the city was really, even as report declared, impregnable, went over to the other side.  The Jews although they were short of food treated them kindly, in order to be able to exhibit deserters to their own ranks.

[Sidenote:—­6—­] Though a breach in the wall was effected by engines, still the capture did not immediately follow; the defenders killed great numbers that tried to crowd through the opening.  Next they set fire to some of the buildings near by, expecting in this way to check the onward progress of the Romans, even should the latter make themselves masters of the entire circuit.  In this way they damaged the wall and unintentionally burned down the barrier encompassing their sacred precinct.  The entrance to the temple was now laid open to the Romans.  The soldiers on account of their superstition would not immediately rush in, but at last, as Titus forced them, they made their way inside.  Then the Jews carried on a defence much more vigorous than before, as if they had discovered a rare and unexpected privilege in falling near the temple, while fighting to save it.  The populace was stationed in the outer court, the senators on the steps, and the priests in the hall of worship itself.  And though they were but a handful fighting against a far superior force they were not subdued until a section of the temple was fired.  Then they went to meet death willingly, some letting themselves be pierced by the swords of the Romans, some slaughtering one another, others committing suicide, and others leaping into the blaze.  It looked to everybody, and most of all to them, apparently, [that so far from being ruin, it was victory and salvation and happiness to perish along with the temple]. [Sidenote:—­7—­] Even under these conditions many captives were taken, among them Bargiora, [Footnote:  Properly Simon Bar-Giora (patronymic).] the commander of the enemy:  he was the only one punished in the course of the triumphal celebration.