Flavius Josephus

The Horrors of the Jerusalem Siege by the Romans

The Roman armies, under Titus, sealed off the city, keeping anyone from entering or leaving it. The historian Josephus records:

"The alleys were piled high with the bodies of the aged. Children and young people, swollen from hunger, wandered about like ghosts until they dropped. Those who still survived were so far spent that they couldn't bury anyone, and if they tried, they fell dead upon the corpses themselves. The misery was indescribable. And as soon as even a shadow of something edible appeared anywhere, a fight began over it, and the best of friends fought each other for it. 

Those who tried to escape the city went straight into the arms of the Romans...who sent them back with their hands cut off if they were women, or crucified them in full view of the city if they were men."