The Seventeenth of Tammuz

Titus saw that the Jews were now weakened by hunger. He had his soldiers cut down all the trees in a thirteen-mile swath around Jerusalem in order to build a new rampart for their assault, and they began dragging their battering rams up again. By the end of the month of Sivan, the Romans were once again battering the Antonia fortress, and this time the Jewish fighters did not have strength to resist. In the beginning of Tammuz, the Romans gained the Antonia fortress. Those who had been defending the fortress now retreated behind the high walls of the Temple complex itself.

As days passed and Titus saw that the fighters in the Temple complex were still holding out, he decided to raze the fortress and attack the Temple complex directly. On the 17^th of Tammuz, the wall of the Temple complex was breached.

Knowing the dire situation in the Jewish camp, Titus sent his spokesman, Josephus, to convince the Jews to surrender. The Jewish warriors turned deaf ears to his words and ejected him contemptuously from their presence. The battle now raged in the Temple area.