Nothing Roman
should mar its organization. He would have again the six hundred
Gibborim of David, and after he had formed them into a body he would
trust to the existing circumstances to direct him how to proceed to
the assistance of Jerusalem with them. He should be the sole captain,
the sole authority, the single commander of them all. He would not
have an unwieldy army, but one perfectly devoted. He would lead by his
own genius, attract and command by his own personality. With six
hundred absolutely subject to his will, trained in endurance and
steadfastness, he could achieve more surely than with an undisciplined
horde which first of all must be fed.
Throughout those days of predatory warfare he made careful selection
of material for his army. As yet, while famine had not reduced
Jerusalem to a skeleton, he could select for bodily strength and
mental balance. He worked swiftly, sparing his men daily to the
defense of the city against the Roman and daily sacrificing precious
numbers of them to the pit of the dead just over the wall.
They were weary days--days of increasing storm and multiplying
calamity. Famine in some quarters of the city reached appalling
proportions. Insurrections in these regions were so vigorously
suppressed that the victims chose to starve and live rather than to
revolt and perish. Pestilence broke out among the inhabitants near the
eastern wall, against the other side of which the dead had been cast
by hundreds; and a general flight from the city was stopped in full
flood by the spectacle of some scores of unfortunates crucified by the
Roman soldiers and set up in sight of the walls.
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