But events of great importance in many quarters had preceded this final conflict, the result of which had been to break down all the outer defences of the Confederacy, leaving only the inner citadel still intact.

Lo, the angels have not yet put down their weapons, and I am come to bid thee go against the Beni Koreitza to destroy their citadel.

Immediately their citadel was seized and plundered, while their men were handcuffed and kept apart, their women and children given into the keeping of a renegade Jew.

Mahomet's losses were more severe than any which he had encountered for some time, but, undeterred and exultant, he marched to Taif, whose idolatrous citadel had become a refuge for the flying auxiliaries of the Hawazin.

And the citadel became a great trap, And served as a place of ambush against the sanctuary, And an evil adversary to Israel continually.

He began with the seizure of Jerusalem, the tearing down of its walls, the fortifying and garrisoning of its citadel with Syrian soldiers and apostate Jews, and the slaughter of all who refused to accede to his demands.

And the men of the citadel were his guides.

And Judas appointed certain men to fight against those who were in the citadel, until he should have cleansed the sanctuary.

And he smote Hebron and the villages belonging to it and pulled down its citadel and burned the surrounding towers.

6:18-27] Now those who were in the citadel were hindering Israel round about the sanctuary and were always seeking to do them harm and were a support to the heathen.

We were willing to serve your father and to live as he enjoined, and to obey his commands; but because of this our own people besieged us in the citadel and were alienated from us; and as many of us as they could find, they killed and despoiled our inheritances.

And now they are to-day encamped against the citadel at Jerusalem, to take it, and they have fortified the sanctuary and Bethsura.

And Judas departed from the citadel and encamped at Beth-zacharias, opposite the king's camp.

Then Jonathan came to Jerusalem, and read the letters in the hearing of all the people, and of those who were in the citadel.

At that time Jonathan gathered together the people of Judea to take the citadel that was at Jerusalem, and he erected many engines of war against it.

Some, however, who hated their own nation, apostates, went to the king, and reported to him that Jonathan was besieging the citadel.

There was still a Syrian outpost in the heart of Judea: it was the citadel at Jerusalem, which looked down upon the temple area.

Here he ruled over the Jews as a vassal of Demetrius, who retained immediate control over the citadel at Jerusalem and the fortified cities that had been built along the borders of Judea.

And the people of the citadel sent to Tryphon ambassadors urging him to come by forced marches through the wilderness to them and to send them supplies.

But those who were in the citadel at Jerusalem were prevented from going out and from going into the country, and from buying and selling, so that they suffered exceedingly from hunger, and a great number of them perished through famine.

He did so, but put them out from there, and cleansed the citadel from its pollutions.

And the temple mount, which was beside the citadel, he made stronger than before, and there he dwelt with his men.

He also brought many captives together, And made himself master of Gazara and Bethsura, and the citadel.

War, I, 8:4a, 5] Now when Gabinius came to Alexandrium, finding a great many encamped there, he tried by promising them pardon for their former offences to attach them to him before it came to fighting; but when they would listen to nothing reasonable, he slew a great number of them and shut up the rest in the citadel.

He also fortified a citadel that lay above Jericho and was very strong and handsome, and dedicated it to his mother, and called it Cypros.