which begins at the tower Hippicus, by the Jaffa Gate. The position of
the great corner tower Psephinus seems to be indicated by the ruined
castle called _Kalat Jalud_ (Giant’s Castle), just within the present
north-west angle. The Damascus Gate is “over against” the so-called
Tombs of the Kings, for a spectator standing at the Tombs would look
down directly upon that gate. The “royal caverns” we may identify with
the Cotton Cavern, the quarry whence the kings of Judah obtained the
stone for the great buildings of the city. The entrance to them is in
the face of the scarped rock, about 300 feet east of the Damascus Gate,
and the city wall runs right across the entrance. At the north-east
corner of the present wall we find the tower which Josephus assigns
to that point--“the most colossal ruins after those at the north-west
corner.” A trench cut in the rock at the foot of the eastern wall is
deflected here, passes round the corner, and goes west; it does not go
any further north as we might expect it to do if the wall ever extended
further north. And then the wall from the north-east corner is brought
southward and joins the Haram wall, the junction not being at the
north-east angle of the Haram, but much nearer to the Golden Gate, at
the deep valley which Pompey began to fill up. We have to bear in mind
that this third wall had been built before the siege of Jerusalem by
Titus, in A.D. 70.
Titus began by investing the city on the north and the west. The place
he selected for his attempt on the outer wall was just west of the Pool
of Hezekiah, because there the wall of the High Town was not covered by
the second wall, and he thought to capture the third wall and then at
once assault the first.
When Titus had taken the outer wall he encamped in the north-west
part of the city between the second and third walls; and at the same
time extended his line from the “Camp of the Assyrians” to the Kedron
Valley. His attempt to storm the High Town at the uncovered portion of
the wall failed because of the strength of Herod’s towers. He then made
an attempt on the Temple platform from the north, but failed because
the valley there was deep and the Temple was strongly fortified. He
had hoped, when he took the Wall of Agrippa, to be able to assault
Antonia from the north, without taking the second wall; but it now
appeared to him that that castle might best be assaulted on the west.
These considerations induced him to attack the second wall. After
some effort, a breach was made, and the Romans entered the middle
city. They were once driven out by the Jews, and kept out for a time;
but by-and-bye they gained entrance again, and then, made wise by
experience, they demolished the second wall, or the northern part of
it, and so were able to keep their ground.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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