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162 pine or perish in the unwholesome climate of Sardinia—the Cayenne of Rome,—he coolly remarks, it was a cheap riddance (vile damnum)—a loss of lives not worth consideration.

But when the historian gets clear of the rocks and shallows of rumour and remote events, his strength returns to him; and the poor remnant of his narrative that we have of the Jewish war enables us to measure as well as mourn for the portions we have lost. After a brief sketch of former invasions of Judæa by the Romans, he comes to that final rebellion which ended with the last dispersion of the Jewish people, and the demolition of Jerusalem itself. Cneius Pompeius in 63 had dismantled the walls of the city, but had left the temple standing. Judæa under its Maccabæan pontiffs had regained much of her early rank among nations, and under Herod, and afterwards under Agrippa, been dignified with the title of a kingdom. On the death of the latter it had become an appanage of the vast province of Syria; still it had not ceased to be a recognised portion of the empire. But the hour was at hand for the complete fulfilment of prophecies delivered long before there was an augur in Rome—of prophecies which seemed to have been accomplished when the Assyrian carried off Israel and Judah to the banks of the Euphrates, and made a heap of ruins the temple of Jehovah and the city of David. But the end was not to be under the first of the four great monarchies, but under the last.

"Peace," says Tacitus, "having been established in Italy, foreign affairs were once more remembered. Our indignation was heightened by the 'circumstance that the Jews alone had not submitted. Vespasian in 66