Many of these unhappy victims were sawn asunder, according to a precedent to which David had given the sanction of his example.

The victorious Jews devoured the flesh, licked up the blood, and twisted the entrails like a girdle round their bodies.
See Dion Cassius, l.lxviii.p.1145.

* Note: Some commentators, among them Reimar, in his notes on Dion Cassius think that the hatred of the Romans against the Jews has led the historian to exaggerate the cruelties committed by the latter.Don.Cass.lxviii.p.

1146 .-- G.] [Footnote 2: Without repeating the well-known narratives of Josephus, we may learn from Dion, (l.lxix.p.

1162,) that in Hadrian's war 580,000 Jews were cut off by the sword, besides an infinite number which perished by famine, by disease, and by fire.] [Footnote 3: For the sect of the Zealots, see Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, l.i.c.