Josephus sent word to Jerusalem that if he was to meet the Romans, he must have an army. The request came too late. His troops, such as they were, retired to the fortress of Jotapata, north of Sepphoris. Vespasian appeared before it and a desperate struggle followed. Josephus was a skilful commander and his men showed dauntless courage, but Rome on its side had all the experience of war together with overwhelming numbers. The first attack failed and a siege began. Josephus showed wonderful craft in obtaining food for his garrison and in breaking the force of the Roman battering rams. But these means could only delay the end; they could not change it. The besieged were worn out by sleeplessness and starvation after holding out for forty-seven days. The wall was scaled when the exhausted watchmen were asleep. All were either slain or sold into slavery. The city and its fortifications were levelled to the ground. Josephus with forty companions escaped to a cave. Against his advice to surrender, they all decided that they would die by their own hands. Josephus by strategem alone managed to escape this fate. He appeared before Vespasian and by adroit flattery was favorably received into his camp. _Theme for discussion_: Make clear the difference in principle between Judea's "Peace Party" and the "Royalist Party" among the American revolutionists in 1776. [Illustration: A BATTLEMENT ON THE HOUSE-TOP.] CHAPTER XXI. THE SIEGE. The North Succumbs. When Vespasian reached Tiberias, on the Sea of Galilee, the people opened their gates and at the request of Agrippa--who had now wholly thrown in his fortunes with the Romans--they were well treated. In the meantime the army of Titus, son of Vespasian, took the city of Tarichea. Glance for a moment at the map of Palestine, (front of book) so that a mental picture may be formed of the territory involved in the great struggle: Phoenicia, the Lebanon Mountains and Syria ran across the north. Immediately south was the province of Galilee, partly bordering on the Mediterranean and bounded on the east by the province of Gaulonitis and Decapolis, the Jordan and the Sea of Galilee being the dividing line. Batanaea lay to the east again of Gaulanitis. Still farther south was Judea, with the Jordan dividing it from Perea. Idumea lay in the extreme south.