Dear Milinda,

The seige of Jerusalem began on Passover, 70AD, exactly 40 years after Jesus' crucifixion. The festival goers were trapped in the City for 154 days during which Titus, the Roman Commander at the head of three legions, sent delegates to try to negotiate a peace on several occasions. One of these delegates was Josephus. Unfortunately none of them were successful and the City of Jerusalem fell to the Romans on the 9th of Av, the very same day of the year that it had fallen to the Babylonians 655 years before. From what Josephus recorded, some 1,000,000 people died and the roads to Jerusalem were lined with crosses, the rotting bodies stinking in full view of the dead and dying city. Jerusalem was left as a smoking and totally demolished ruin.