Simon and John had a disastrous quarrel and during the interval, when
the sentries and the fighting-men were killing each other, the Romans
possessed the first fortification around Jerusalem, the Wall of
Agrippa. The following day Titus pitched his camp within the limits of
the Holy City, upon the site of Sennacherib's Assyrian bivouac.
At sight of this signal advance, tumult broke out afresh in the city
and for days Titus lay calmly by, merely harassing the Jews while he
watched Jerusalem weaken itself by internal combat. The Maccabee,
steadily training his picked Gibborim, saw these lulls as signs that
Titus was still in the hope that the city would submit to occupation
and spare him the repugnant task of slaughtering half a nation. In his
soul he knew that at no time would Titus be unwilling to receive the
voluntary capitulation of the city.
So, composed and intent through struggle and terror, he continued to
prepare for the day when an organized army could take the unhappy
inhabitants out of the bloody hands of the two factionists, Simon and
John.
During one of the casual attacks on the Second Wall, a lean,
lash-scarred maniac that had not ceased to cry night or day for seven
years, "Woe unto Jerusalem!" mounted the Old Second Wall, and there
pointed to his breast and added, "Woe unto me also!" At that instant a
great stone struck him and tumbling with it to the ground, he was
crushed into the earth and left so buried for all time.
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