[Sidenote:  Jos.  War, I, 6:6-7:2b] But Pompey gave him no time to make any preparations and followed at his heels.  And Aristobulus was so frightened at his approach that he came and met him as a suppliant.  He also promised him money and to deliver up both himself and the city.  Yet he did not keep any one of his promises.  At this treatment Pompey was very angry and took Aristobulus into custody.  And when he had entered the city he looked about to see where he might make his attack, for he saw that the walls were so firm that it would be hard to overcome them and the valley before the walls was terrible and the temple which was in that valley was itself surrounded by such a strong wall that if the city was taken the temple would be a second place of refuge for the enemy.  Inasmuch as Pompey deliberated a long time, a sedition arose among the people within the city.  Aristobulus’s party was willing to fight to save their king, while the party of Hyrcanus was ready to open the gates to Pompey.  Then Aristobulus’s party was defeated and retired into the temple and cut off the communications between the temple and the city by breaking down the bridge which joined them together, and they prepared to resist to the utmost.

[Sidenote:  Jos.  War, I, 7:3] Pompey himself filled up the ditch which was on the north side of the temple and the entire valley also, the army being obliged to carry the material for this purpose.  Indeed, it was difficult to fill up that valley because of its great depth and especially as the Jews from their superior position used all possible means to repel them.  As soon as Pompey had filled up the valley, he erected high towers upon the bank.

[Sidenote:  Jos.  War, I, 7:4, 5] Now Pompey admired not only the other examples of the Jews’ fortitude, but especially that they did not at all intermit their religious services, even when they were surrounded with darts on all sides; for, as if the city were in full peace, their daily sacrifices and purifications and all their religious rites were still carried out before God with the utmost exactness.  Nor when the temple was taken and they were slain about the altar daily, did they cease from those things that are appointed by their law to be observed.  For it was in the third month of the siege before the Romans could even with a great struggle overthrow one of the towers and get into the temple.  The greater part of the Jews were slain by their own countrymen of the opposite faction and an innumerable multitude threw themselves down from the walls.  Of the Jews twelve thousand were slain, but of the Romans very few, although a greater number were wounded.

[Sidenote:  Jos.  War, I, 7:6a, b] But there was nothing that affected the nation so much in the calamities which they then suffered as that their holy place, hitherto unseen, should be laid open to strangers.  For Pompey and those who were about him went into the temple itself, where it was lawful for the high priest alone to enter, and saw what was deposited therein; but he commanded the ministers about the temple to purify it and to perform their accustomed sacrifices.