Jerusalem was as silent as a city stricken with plague.
From the summit of Zion, which Philadelphus mounted, he could see three Roman war-towers, planted along the outer works, dimly lighted, and manned by a vigilant garrison of legionaries.

These had been a dread and a destruction which the Jews had been unable to overthrow; coigns of vantage from which the enemy had been able to deal the sturdiest blows of the campaign.

They had permitted no rest to the defenders on the wall; they had spread ruin by fire and carnage, by arrow and sling for days.

Sorties against them had resulted in the death of their assailants, only.

Jewish engines accomplished nothing against them.