Placidus having completed the conquest of Persea, remained in the neighbourhood of Jericho, to await the further movements of Vespasian, who was at this time greatly disturbed by the news which had just reached him of the state of affairs at Rome. Vindex had revolted against the power of the emperor in the province of Gaul; and Vespasian foreseeing that his army might be required to take part in the war consequent on this rebellion, was very desirous to hasten the operations in Palestine, and put an end to the war without loss of time. He marched from Cæsarea, and successively attacked and reduced Antipatris, Lydda, and Jamnia, and blockaded Emmaus, which for some time resisted his forces. But Vespasian did not suffer this event to delay his progress; he seized on the avenues leading to the city, fortified his camp with a strong wall, and leaving the fifth legion to maintain the blockade, he proceeded southwards through the toparchy of Bethleptepha, wasting all around with fire and sword. From thence he entered Idumea, and seized and fortified such castles and fortresses as he found convenient for his designs, and took also Bataris and Cephartoba, two towns in the very heart of the country, where he put to the sword upwards of ten thousand men, and carried away a great number of prisoners. In these towns he placed a strong body of troops, and left them to overrun and ravage all the neighbouring mountainous region. He himself, with the rest of his forces, returned to Emmaus, and thence by Samaria and Neapolis to Jericho, where he was joined by the army which had been employed in the conquest of Persea. Before the arrival of the Romans, a multitude of the inhabitants fled from Jericho, and took refuge among the mountains that bound the wilderness of Judea, on the borders of the Dead Sea; but those who remained in the city perished. Vespasian found this important place almost deserted, and his army entered it without resistance; and gladly reposed for some time among the fertile and lovely gardens, and the shady groves of palm-trees that lay around the city, before they proceeded to traverse the dreary and mountainous desert that lay between Jericho and Jerusalem. The plain of Jericho is surrounded by wild and barren mountains, extending northward as far as the country of Scythopolis and southward towards the shores of the Dead Sea, and the great plain of the Jordan. This very extensive plain may be said to reach almost the whole length of Palestine, and to contain within its limits the two seas or lakes of Genesareth and Asphaltites. These lakes are united by the Jordan; but their waters are of the most opposite qualities, those of the former being sweet and salubrious, while the latter gives nourishment to neither animal nor vegetable life, but diffuses barrenness and death around its dismal shores.