[227] and at first so great an outcry was raised, accompanied with weeping and beating of the breast, that the very ears of those present could not endure the vastness of the noise; for it did not cease when they ceased, but continued to vibrate even after they were quiet: then there were approaches to the governor, and supplications addressed to him such as the occasion suggested; for calamities are themselves teachers of what should be done in an existing emergency. And the multitude was divided into six companies, one of old men, one of young men, one of boys; and again in their turn one band of aged matrons, one of women in the prime of life, and one of virgins;