Positioned down in the TyropoeonValley below the Temple Mount, Titus ordered huge earthen ramps built. Upon them were to be placed the siege engines, which would pound away at Antonia. But Yochanan and his men were one step ahead of their Roman counterparts. Under the ramp they had dug a tunnel, filling it with wood and tar, both highly flammable. At the appropriate time, they were ignited. The fire spread quickly, causing the ramp to collapse and destroying the war machines.
* * * * *
The Jews were proving to be stiffer competition than Titus had initially anticipated. In response, he changed course. Starvation would now be the primary weapon to win the war for Rome.
To accelerate the process, he ordered a siege wall built around the city and posted guards at each of Jerusalem’s exits, making it impossible for anyone to exit the city and smuggle in food. Hunger within the city now reached new heights. The consequence was a rise in crime among the population (mainly stealing food and other provisions). Those who, out of desperation, did attempt to escape were publicly crucified.
Growing impatient with his siege tactics, Titus again prepared his men to attack Antonia. In the month of Sivan, four earthen ramps were constructed. After a few weeks of continuous battering, the walls of Antonia gave way on 5 Tammuz, falling into Roman hands. Soon after that Titus ordered Antonia razed to the ground, fearing the courageous Jewish fighters, whose will greatly exceeded their strength, would somehow recapture it. The road to the Temple Mount was now wide open.
Next to be breached were the fortifications surrounding the Temple Mount. This took place on 17 Tammuz, after twelve days of intense resistance from Yochanan and his men. On that same date, the daily sacrifice ceased, as animals were no longer available for offering.
Titus now sent Josephus a second time. The former Galilean commander begged those still resisting to lay down their arms. Josephus was roundly booed and driven away in contempt. The fighters would not surrender, hoping against hope that God would aid their efforts.
For the next three weeks a desperate fight was waged for control of the Temple. Eventually the Romans gained the upper hand. In a frantic attempt to prevent Roman penetration into the Temple courtyard, the Jewish defenders, starving and completely exhausted, set fire to the adjacent hallways, trapping and killing many.
On 8 Av, after numerous unsuccessful attempts at breaching the Temple walls, Titus’s men set fire to its chambers. The flames spread rapidly through the halls, to the collective horror of the Jewish fighters, whose “spirits sunk together with their bodies”(Josephus, Wars, 6:233).
The following day, 9 Av, the Jews and Romans met for one last battle. The Temple itself was still intact at midday, when a Roman soldier threw a fire brigand into its northern chamber. The great edifice, thought to be fireproof, began to burn uncontrollably; all efforts to extinguish it were futile. It seemed God Himself willed its destruction to ease the punishment of His people.
The burning continued for the next thirty hours, through 10 Av. The entire structure, save the Western Wall, would burn to the ground. Thus 9 Av became even more deeply established as a date of suffering, sorrow, and mourning for the Jewish people.
As the flames raged, the Romans rushed into the Temple, looting its contents. Those who stood in their way were mercilessly beaten and killed. So many had perished that “the blood was even more than the fire…the ground was not visible because of the corpses that covered it” (Josephus, Wars, 6:275–276). Some, including many priests, jumped into the flames, preferring to meet their end together with the Temple.
