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• When the Temple was set on fire, a single Roman soldier threw a firebrand into one of the Temple's windows, starting a raging fire. As the temple burned, the Romans looted it and massacred the defenders. Titus passed through a curtained opening, and entered the Holy of Holies. It was the desecration spoken of by Daniel the prophet, as mentioned in Jesus’s earlier prophecy in Matthew chapter 24.
• Josephus estimated the dead of Jerusalem to be 1,197,000, much higher than normal because so many Jews had come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. He estimates that 97,000 Jews who survived the revolt were sold into slavery. Tacitus (Roman historian) says Jerusalem had 600,000 Jews when it fell. These were truly immense numbers, given the smaller population of the world at that time.