It was in the year of our Lord 70. Vials of woe, which even the mystic symbols of apocalyptic vision cannot exaggerate, were poured out upon the doomed city. Human nature has perhaps never before nor since endured such woes. It is impossible for the imagination to conceive more appalling horrors, or sufferings more terrible, than were then experienced. The reader will find those scenes of rage, despair, and misery, minutely detailed by the pen of Josephus. It requires strong nerves to enable any one to peruse the revolting narrative with composure. Probably the disciples of the Saviour, warned by their divine Master, had all fled from Jerusalem and Judæa, conveying the tidings of the gospel wherever they went in their wide dispersion. Our Saviour had urged them to a precipitate flight. “When ye therefore shall see,” said he, “the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet” (referring to the Roman armies), “stand in the holy place, then let them which be in Judæa flee into the mountains; let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house; neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes: for then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time; no, nor ever shall be. And, except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved; but, for the elect’s sake, those days shall be shortened.”[170] The siege lasted six months. The city was entirely demolished. A million of Jews perished by the sword, pestilence, and famine. A hundred thousand who were taken captive were sold into slavery. All Judæa was thus brought again into submission to Rome. Titus, laden with the spoils of the city, and accompanied by his long train of captives, returned in triumph to Rome. He was received with universal acclaim. The signal victory he had achieved strengthened the throne of his father. In commemoration of the event, a triumphal arch was erected,――_the Arch of Titus_. This massive structure, reared eighteen hundred years ago, remains almost perfect to the present day. It still attracts the thoughtful gaze of every tourist in Rome. Vespasian proved one of the best of the Roman emperors. With great energy and wisdom, he devoted himself to the welfare of his wide-spread realms. It was during his reign that the world-renowned Coliseum, was reared,――the most gigantic amphitheatre in the world. It furnished seats for eighty thousand spectators, and standing-room for twenty thousand more. It was in the arena of this vast edifice that subsequently so many Christians, with a hundred thousand spectators gazing mockingly upon them, endured the pangs and won the crown of ♦martyrdom.