Nero died after having reigned thirteen years and eight days, and Vespasian, being informed of the event, waited for a whole year, holding his army together instead of proceeding against Jerusalem.  Galba was made emperor, and slain, as was also Otho, his successor; and then, after the defeat and death of the emperor Vitellius, Vespasian was proclaimed by the East.  He had preferred to leave the Jews to waste their strength by their internal feuds while he sent his lieutenants with forces to reduce various surrounding districts instead of attacking Jerusalem.  When he became emperor, he released Josephus from his bonds, honouring him for his integrity.  Hastening his journey to Rome, Vespasian commanded Titus to subdue Judea.

At Jerusalem were now three factions raging furiously.  Eleazar, son of Simon, who was the first cause of the war, by persuading the people to reject the offerings of the emperors to the Temple, and had led the Zealots and seized the Temple, pretended to cherish righteous wrath against John of Gishala for the bloodshed he had occasioned.  But he deserted the Zealots and seized the inner court of the Temple, so that there was war between him and Simon, son of Gioras.  Thus Eleazar, John, and Simon each led a band in constant fightings, and the Temple was everywhere defiled by murders.

Now, as Titus was on his march he chose out 600 select horsemen, and went to take a view of the city, when suddenly an immense multitude burst forth from the gate over against the monuments of Queen Helena and intercepted him and a few others.  He had on neither helmet nor breastplate, yet though many darts were hurled at him, all missed him, as if by some purpose of Providence, and, charging through the midst of his foes, he escaped unhurt.  Part of the army now advanced to Scopos, within a mile of the city, while another occupied a station at the foot of the Mount of Olives.

Seeing this gathering of the Roman forces, the factions within Jerusalem for the first time felt the necessity for concord, as Eleazar from the summit of the Temple, John from the porticoes of the outer court, and Simon from the heights of Sion watched the Roman camps forming thus so near the walls.  Making terms with each other, they agreed to make an attack at the same moment.  Their followers, rushing suddenly forth along the valley of Jehoshaphat, fell with violence on the 10th legion, encamped at the foot of the Mount of Olives, and working there unarmed at the entrenchments.  The soldiers fell back, many being killed.  Witnessing their peril, Titus, with picked troops, fell on the flank of the Jews and drove them into the city with great loss.

The Roman commander now carefully pushed forward his approaches, leveling the whole plain of Scopos to the outward wall and destroying all the beautiful gardens with their fountains and water-courses, and the army took up a position all along the northern and the western wall, the footmen being drawn up in seven lines, with the horsemen in three lines behind, and the archers between.  Jerusalem was fortified by three walls.  These were not one within the other, for each defended one of the quarters into which the city was divided.