Jews against Rome: War in Palestine AD 66-73

186 Pages·2008·0.53 MB·English

by  Susan Sorek

THE JEWS AGAINST ROME
This page intentionally left blank
The Jews Against Rome
Susan Sorek
Continuum UK, The Tower Building, 11 York Road, London SE1 7NX
Continuum US, 80 Maiden Lane, Suite 704, New York, NY 10038
www.continuumbooks.com
Copyright © Susan Sorek 2008
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission
from the publishers.
First published 2008
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978 1 84725 248 7
Typeset by Pindar New Zealand
Printed and bound by MPG Books Ltd, Cornwall, Great Britain
Contents
Introduction vii
1 The Historical Background: 198 bc–ad 66 1
2 Josephus and his Histories 15
3 The Causes of Revolution According to Josephus (I) 27
4 The Causes of Revolution According to Josephus (II) 39
5 Insurrection: ad 65–66 45
6 The March on Jerusalem 55
7 Josephus in Galilee 63
8 The Siege of Jotapata 75
9 Final Confl ict in Galilee 85
10 Civil War in Judaea 93
11 Civil War in Rome 105
12 The Battle for Jerusalem 115
13 The Final Confl ict 125
14 The Zealots’ Last Stand 137
15 Epilogue 149
Notes 155
Bibliography 163
Index 167
To David Noy, friend, colleague and mentor.
Introduction
Scholars have concluded that in comparative terms the Jewish war, culminating
in the siege of Jerusalem, and destruction of the Temple was the major event in
Roman military history. The war demanded a massive concentration of forces
and was the longest siege in the whole of the imperial period. Lasting roughly
fi ve months it took four legions, detachments of two others, 20 infantry cohorts,
eight mounted alaeand 18,000 men supplied by four independent kings to effect
a victory. In fact the forces that were committed to the siege were larger than those
deployed for the invasion of Britain in ad 43.
The revolt was not inspired by any ideological objection on the part of the
Jews towards Rome, nor any Roman anti-Semitism. There were a variety of
underlying causes that helped spark the revolt; social tensions, bad procurators,
the divisions amongst the ruling class, the rise of banditry and poor harvests, but
perhaps the most signifi cant feature of all was the apocalyptical storm brewing
over fi rst-century Palestine.
Of all the messianic movements one in particular drew the most attention;
the Essene sect, the community that wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls, based their
calculations on the end of days on a prophecy from the book of Daniel. Josephus
says that the major impetus inspiring the Jewish revolt against Roman rule was
an ‘oracle found in the sacred scriptures’. This oracle effectively said when the
time came ‘one from their own country would become ruler of the world’.The
Essenes calculated the year ad26/7 ushered in the messianic age. There was never
a time previously quite like it, and there has never been one since; two messiahs,
one king one priest would rule over Palestine. The fervour with which many
fought against the might of the greatest power of the ancient world could only
have come from such beliefs; that the end of days was nigh.
All revolutions change history, whether they are successful or not and the
Jewish war against Rome in ad 66–70 is no exception. Even though the revolution
did not succeed, the ramifi cations were enormous and still impact upon the
modern-day world. The revolt had a profound infl uence on the development of
Judaism and Christianity, to which modern times bear witness. Had this revolt
not occurred, then two major religions would simply not exist, at least certainly
not in their present form. The structures and theologies of these religions owe a
great deal to the crisis provoked by the revolt and destruction of the Temple in
viii INTRODUCTION
Jerusalem. For Judaism especially the destruction was an axial moment in the
formation of rabbinic Judaism, enabling the Pharasaic sect to reorganize Judaism
as a conformative religion. Christianity also emerged in its Pauline form, which
attested Jesus to be, as one author has succinctly put it, ‘repackaged as a saviour
God dispensing opiate’.1By the late second century ad Christian writers saw the
destruction of the Temple as defi nitive proof of God’s desire that the Christian
church was to be the successor of the ‘old religion’, and its doctrines to constitute
theNew Israel.
The other exceptional fact about the Jewish war is the extraordinary amount
of information to have survived and for that we have to thank one man, Flavius
Josephus, a Jew of Pharisaic origin and eyewitness to the events he describes. Born
Joseph ben Mattiyahu, of aristocratic descent he played a key role in many of the
events during the confl ict with Rome. He held a command in Galilee during a
pivotal stage of the revolt, was captured by the Romans, and eventually through
his skilful manipulation of events became a client and friend to the future Roman
emperors, Vespasian and his son Titus, working as a translator and mediator
during the fateful siege of Jerusalem: to the Jews he became a traitor. He left his
native Judaea with the Roman forces, never to return but to spend the remainder
of his life as a Roman citizen in Rome changing his name to Flavius Josephus,
writing accounts both for himself and for his Roman masters on the Jewish war.2
In his works Jewish War (referred to hereafter as JW), Life and Jewish Antiquities
(JA) he pursues a number of questions and agendas; as writer and historian he
is both defender of Jewish traditions and the Jewish people to a predominately
Roman audience. He often depicts the people of Judaea and Galilee as noble,
fervent in their commitment to God and generally good citizens.3
However the veracity of his work is often called into question because of the
discrepancies in his accounts of the same events in JW and Life. Many scholars
argue these occur because of the pressures he was subjected to during the 30 years
he lived and wrote in Rome.4
On the other hand some have attempted to play down the discrepancies,
and one in particular has argued that it is ill-founded to use Josephus as a
completely reliable historical source because he was, for personal reasons, intent
on explaining the most important events in his life which occurred between ad
66–70. In doing so he searched the annals of his society to fi nd the causes for the
disaster. From his perspective it would appear there had to be some explanation,
whereas from a modern perspective we could conclude there was nothing
inevitable about what happened, that it was just an accident.5 However each
attack upon Josephus’ history undermines the study of the subject altogether. Yet
others have proposed that the rich, mostly priestly Judaean elite’s involvement
in the revolt was an important factor in ‘encouraging Rome to treat the uprising
as a full scale rebellion and provoking the splits that plagued the short lived
INTRODUCTION ix
independent Judaean state’.6Seemingly the Judaean ruling class was driven into
revolution because they were unable to control pressures, mainly economic, from
the rest of Judaean society.
The revolutionary zeal the revolt had inspired did not entirely die out; there
were still pockets of resistance in many corners of the Roman Empire. Some
Zealots escaped to Alexandria in Egypt where they attempted to create a new
base of operations. They were rounded up by the citizens and handed over to
the Romans. The old zeal was still apparent as the captives continued to defy
the Romans even under torture. At Cyrene another revolutionary, Jonathan, a
weaver by trade, led a number of poorer citizens out into the desert promising
to show them signs and portents. Once again a military force was sent to capture
them, Jonathan was hunted down and taken to Rome where he was tortured and
burnt alive.
There were further disturbances between the years ad115–117 in the cities of
the Diaspora, in Cyrene, Egypt and Cyprus and fi nally once again in Palestine.
The new Jewish messiah Simon bar Kochba (Son of the Star), supported by
the greatest sage of the time, the radical Rabbi Akiva, rose up against Roman
occupation. The rebels seized back the Holy city of Jerusalem, appointed a new
High Priest and restored Temple ritual. Many exiles now returned to Palestine,
and the countryside was once again home to guerrilla bands, the caves and desert
fortresses played host to rebel defenders. This time it took the Romans four years
and eight legions to crush the revolt. Sadly the details of this rebellion are scant,
unlike the earlier Jewish war, whose story is contained in this work, following the
accounts of its star witness Josephus.
Where there is some disparity in his work an attempt has been made to shed
some light on the possible reasons for this, using modern scholarly research.
Nevertheless there is still much that is not precise, even the archaeological
record cannot fi ll the gaps in knowledge. Recent excavations of some of the sites
mentioned in the text are discussed in Chapter 15 and show in some instances
Josephus’ words are true, but the fi nal judgement concerning the causes and
consequences of the war must be left to the reader. What is true is that the war
against Rome was an axial moment in Jewish history, and in consequence for the
history of the Western world.