Page:Apocryphal Gospels and Other Documents Relating to the History of Christ.djvu/554

438 doth our life profit us, inasmuch as the Romans have come to take our place and nation? It is better that we should kill ourselves, than for the Romans to say they slew us and gained a victory over us. And they drew their swords and smote themselves, and there died of them the number of 12,000 men.

Then there arose a great stench in that city from the bodies of those dead men; and their kings feared with a great fear even unto death, and were not able to endure the stench of them, nor to bury them, nor to cast them out of the city. And they said among themselves, What shall we do? We, indeed, delivered Christ unto death, and now we are delivered unto death. Let us bow down our heads, and give up the keys of the city to the Romans, for God hath already delivered us unto death. And they straightway went up on the walls of the city, and all cried with a loud voice, saying, Titus and Vespasian, receive the keys of the city which were given to you by Messiah who is called Christ.

Then they delivered themselves into the hands of Titus and Vespasian, and said, Judge us, for we ought to die, because we judged Christ, and he was given up without cause. And Titus and Vespasian took them, and part they stoned, and part they hung upon a tree with their feet up and their heads downwards, and smote them with lances. Some they gave