The final concentration began in the spring of 70 A. D. The 5th, or Macedonian, legion came up from Emmaus Nicopolis on the west; the 10th (Fretensis) from Jericho to the Mount of Olives; the 15th (Apollinaris) marched on Gophna, north of Bethel; and the disgraced 12th legion (Fulminata) joined them from Cæsarea. Thus in the final advance the last named was in the centre--at Skopos--with the 10th to its left and the 15th to its right, the 5th and the auxiliaries forming the reserve in rear. In this order the forces remained till the later stages of the siege, when the 5th legion came into the fighting line against Antonia, and the 10th was transferred to the right centre, joining the 15th in the attack on the upper city. [Sidenote: THE FACTIONS] The defenders of the city were divided into three factions,[342] which fought one another within the walls. The Zealots, under the command of John of Gischala, and Eleazar son of Simon, sent in 68 A. D. to the Idumæans for assistance, and these wild warriors were admitted during a terrible storm by the fanatics, who sawed the bars of the city gate, closed by order of the high-priest. They passed through the city to the Temple, where they surprised the guards; and the high-priest himself was slain. But after creating anarchy by the murder of many of the moderate party, and of Zachariah, son of Baruch, who was accused--like Jeremiah--of being a friend of the foe, and who fell in the middle of the Temple, the Idumæans--like other Arabs--got tired of the war, and desired to return home with their plunder. The better class of the inhabitants preferred the Romans to the Zealots, and many of them also deserted the city. Vespasian, who had heard of the death of Nero, which occurred on June 16, 68 A. D., showed no signs of advance on the town, and John of Gischala was left for a time to tyrannise over Jerusalem. But, in April of the next year, Simon, son of Gioras, brought back the Idumæans in the third year of the war, and drove John into the Temple, where he erected four towers in the cloisters, one on the north-west above the lower city, another on the north-east, a third as a signal tower on the top of the Pastophoria (or “Chamber of Offerings”[343]), where a priest used to stand to announce the sabbath by blowing a trumpet, and the fourth near the Xystos, apparently at the east end of the Tyropœon bridge. Simon made another tower at its west end, to prevent the faction of John having access to the upper city. John soon quarrelled with Eleazar, who held the inner temple, and, when the Romans appeared at Passover time in 70 A. D., he succeeded in obtaining entrance into the courts, and treacherously made himself master of the whole. His forces, including the Zealots, are reckoned at 8,400 men by Josephus. He defended the eastern hill from Bezetha to Ophel, while Simon, with a total force of 15,000 men, including 5,000 Idumæans, held the rest of the city to the west. [Illustration: JERUSALEM IN 70 A. D.