A.D. 67. VESPASIAN SLATS THE JEWS. 149 and insanities by means of bis Apostle Peter, who exposed him so, that he threw himself down from a height, and broke his neck, and died. Then Nero, being perplexed, gave orders to apprehend Peter ; bat Peter being at that time desirous to escape from the city, when he came to the gate, saw Christ meet him ; so he, adoring him, said, " Lord, whither goest thou?" And he said, "I am coming to Rome, to be crucified a second time." Peter, understanding that it was in himself that the Lord was going to suffer, inasmuch as he suffers in his saints, not by pain of body, but by the compassion of his mercy, returned into the city, and was soon taken by his persecutors, and led to the cross. And he was crucified with his head downwards ; and Paul, who had been a long time detained in the city as a prisoner, was beheaded the same day. A.P . 67. Nero ordered the city of Rome to be set on fire. And in order to behold a likeness of Troy when it was burning, he feasted his eyes for six days and six nights with a view of the violent fire ; and while he was surveying it from a lofty tower, he was singing the Iliad with great joy, dressed in the dress of a tragedian. While these things were being done at Rome, Vespasian crushed the Jewish race with a miserable overthrow. For he took the city of Jocapata, and slew forty thousand men in it. He took Joppa, and drowned in the sea, in cold blood, four thousand five hundred souls. In Tarichia, when it was taken, six thousand seven hundred persons were slain, and βαχ thousand youths sent to Nero. He slew twelve hundred more, and sold thirty thousand four hundred prisoners for slaves. At the taking of Gemale, four thousand are stated to have been slain, and five thousand perished by being thrown down a precipice ; two thousand more, who followed John as their leader, were slain in Gilgala, and three thousand sentenced to captivity. After this, Jericho was destroyed, and ninety-two thousand two hundred people perished. Of this •hesied against the wicked Jews, aaying, "Alas, sinful nation ! a people heavy with iniquity, a worthless son, impious children: they have forsaken the Lord, they have blasphemed the Holy One of Israel, they are turned backwards." In this destruction, when Josephus the. historian, and the military general of the Jews, was on the point of being slain by the Romans, he predicted to Vespa