Jews vs Rome

The following is a brief outline of Jews vs Rome: Two Centuries of Rebellion Against the World’s Mightiest Empire, by Barry Strauss, intended for discussion at our congregations’ Pub Theology nights. It’s a good book; you should read it. My apologies for any typos, as I put this together rather quickly.

JEWS VS ROME

The War to Which the Gospels Respond

Prologue

The era from 63 BC to AD 136 marked the fall of the Roman Republic, the rise of the Empire, the conquest of Judea, and three revolts by Jews against Roman power: the Great Revolt (AD 66-74), the Diaspora Revolt (116-117), and the Bar Kochba Revolt (132-136). Romans knew these as the Jewish Wars.

Pompey, Pacorus, and Herod

Recall the Four Beasts of Daniel: Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. Babylon led the Israelites into Exile, Persia brought them home, and Grecian kingdoms squabbled over them. A revolt against the Seleucids in 167 BC led to an independent Hasmonean Israel. A century later, a war between brothers called to Rome for aid.

Pompey conquered Jerusalem in 63 BC and made Hyrcanus ethnarch, with his Idumean administrator Antipater. In 40 BC, Parthia sent Pacorus the Cupbearer to Jerusalem; Antipater’s son Herod fled to Rome. Rome reconquered Jerusalem in 37 BC and set Herod up as king. Herod proved brutal against anti-Roman rebels, and his own sons.

The War for Herod’s Legacy

Hydra-headed rebellion arose in the wake of Herod’s death circa 4 BC. Varus, governor of Syria, brutally suppressed it in the “War of Varus,” afterwards crucifying 2000 rebels. Augustus made Archelaus ethnarch, and two of his brothers tetrarchs, but soon dismissed Archelaus over the matter of marrying his brother’s wife. (Remember John?)

Archelaus’ kingdom, the core of Israel, was now part of Roman Syria. This led to a census carried out by Quirinius in AD 6, which in turn led to another rebellion under the “Fourth Philosophy,” the Zealots. The survivors of this uprising became the Sicarii. Varus died in Germania in AD 9, Augustus in AD 14. Tiberias appointed Pontius Pilate as prefect, but recalled him in AD 36 or 37.

The Turncoat and the Convert

Tiberius Julius Alexander, nephew to Philo, was a wealthy Alexandrian Jew who became a citizen, knight, and governor of Roman Egypt. His sister-in-law Berenice was Herod’s granddaughter. Alexandria held the Temple of Onias since the Seleucid persecutions. As in Judea, violent tensions arose between the Greek and Jewish populations.

Caligula sided with Greeks against Jews, despite his best friend Agrippa being Herod’s grandson. When Caligula was assassinated, Agrippa convinced the Senate to accept Claudius as Emperor. In gratitude, Claudius made Agrippa King of Judea, and Consul. Agrippa executed James the Greater and imprisoned Simon Peter, who escaped. Upon Agrippa’s death, Judea returned to direct Roman rule.

The royal family of Adiabene, a Parthian client state, converted to Judaism under Queen Helena. They forged tight bonds with Jerusalem, and may have had hopes for the throne. They also gave Parthia a foothold in the Holy City, building great palaces and tombs.

And the War Came

After the Great Fire of AD 64, Nero needed money for his Domus Aurea. The Greek procurator Gessius Florus squeezed the people, leading to conflict with occupying Romans and auxiliary Samaritans. The Great Revolt began in AD 66, when Agrippa II ruled part of Galilee and supervised the Temple. He and his sister Julia Bernice were Herod’s great-grandchildren. Nero had suffered an embarrassing defeat in Armenia.

Zealots seized Jerusalem, and Sicarii Masada. Adiabenians, Essenes, Idumeans, and Babylonian horse-soldiers from Galilee joined the rebels. The Romans lost a Legion! Judea had been in Roman orbit since 160 BC. It stood on the Parthian frontier, a hinge between Syria and Egypt. Never would Rome allow them to win. Nero sent Titus Flavius Vespasianus.

The War in the North

The rebels minted coins, called themselves Israel, and spoke Hebrew, not Aramaic. They were building a kingdom. But pro-Roman and neutral Jews were caught up in a near-civil war. Vespasian invaded Galilee with overwhelming force, both Roman and allied. The pro-Roman cities of Sepphoris and Tiberias surrendered. Jotapata he besieged.

Joseph son of Mattathias alone survived. Highly educated, he surrendered to Vespasian and announced that the general would become Emperor. Joseph thus became Titus Flavius Josephus, Vespasian’s pet historian and advisor. Vespasian and Agrippa II pacified Galilee, and the surviving hardcore fighters fled to the fortress of Jerusalem.

Defenders of Jerusalem

Nero committed suicide in AD 68, and when word reached Vespasian, he regrouped at Caesarea Maritima. The Year of the Four Emperors ensued. The rebels used this reprieve to fight each other, Zealots murdering moderates, Sicarii murdering Zealots. Worse in the long run, they burned each other’s food supplies.

Meanwhile, a larger civil war broke out all over the Empire, fighting for Nero’s throne. Vespasian, a 58-year-old veteran and son of a tax collector without a drop of noble blood, fulfilled Josephus’ prophecy and became the first of the Flavian Emperors.

About this time, AD 68, Johanan ben Zakkai and the Christians of Jerusalem both escaped Jerusalem. The former likewise announced that Vespasian would be Emperor, and was allowed to found the first school of Rabbinical Judaism in Yavneh. This replaced the Sanhedrin, and Johanan was a primary contributor to the Mishnah. The Christians fled to Pella, as Christ had warned them to do, “when you see the eagles.”

Titus at Jerusalem

In AD 70, Vespasians’ son Titus marched on Jerusalem with four Legions and 20 cohorts of auxiliaries—15% of the Empire’s armies. Titus began a lifelong affair with Julia Berenice, Agrippa II’s sister and Herod the Great’s great-granddaughter. Titus’ chief-of-staff was Tiberius Julius Alexander, the Jewish Alexandrian prefect/governor of Egypt. He had recently used two Legions to put down Jewish-Greek violence in Alexandria.

As the Romans besieged Jerusalem, the defenders surprised them several times by sallying forth, at one point almost capturing Titus, at another driving a Legion camp from the Mount of Olives. Soldiers on both sides defected. The stages of a Roman siege were: intimidation, light assault, heavy assault (ramps, engines, circumvallation), and sack. 500+ prisoners were crucified per day.

With the north wall down and the Fortress Antonia taken, Titus focused on the Temple. Starvation had caused the daily sacrifices to cease, very bad for morale. Josephus claims that Titus tried to save the Temple, the largest in the Empire. But it burned. Soldiers looted so many of its treasures that the price of gold in Syria halved. Jerusalem was sacked in accordance with the “laws of war.” Judea was treated as a foreign foe.

Survivors

Vespasian installed the X Legion on the ruins of Jerusalem. They took a boar as their insignia of the campaign. Judea became an independent province, with Caesarea Maritima as the new capital, now upgraded to a colonia. 97,000 Jews were enslaved. Rome imposed fiscus Iudaicus to replace the Temple tax. Vespasian and Titus celebrated a joint Triumph, and used Judean booty to erect the Flavian Amphitheater (Colosseum), two triumphal arches, and the Templum Pacis. They struck Iudaea capta coins.

Tiberius Alexander joined the Senate. Argippa II won a praetorship. Bernice lived as Titus’ unofficial wife, until he became Emperor. Josephus got a plush gig writing histories in Rome. Simon, leader of the Jerusalem Sicarii, was executed in Triumph. Josephus believed Roman victory to be God’s judgment; he remained a faithful Jew.

Masada

The old Herodian fortress of Masada, headquarters of the Sicarii, had become a waystation and base for any and all anti-Roman activities. Atop a 1,900’ plateau, it could only be breached after Romans used prisoners of war to build a mountainlike ramp. The defenders took their own lives before the final breach, in a murder/suicide pact. Today Masada stands as a national symbol for Israel, and an impressive tourist destination.

Remaining Sicarii tried to export the rebellion to Alexandria, but local Jews fought back. Even so, Vespasian destroyed the Temple of Onias, or Temple of Leontopolis. Including Iupiter Optimus Maximus, Vespasian was three for three on burning great temples. After the Flavians, Trajan took the throne; his father had commanded the X Legion.

Trajan, Parthia, and the Diaspora Revolt

In AD 115, a massive earthquake devastated Antioch, Rome’s third largest city. This followed Trajan’s attempt to place a Roman client on the Parthian throne, an offensive defeated in part by an uprising of Mesopotamian warrior-Jews, who preferred Parthia.

A suspiciously well-coördinated Jewish uprising in Egypt, Cyprus, and Cyrenaica then hit circa AD 116, triggered by Trajan’s anti-Jewish policies and perhaps some Parthian help. The rebels also possessed a formidable navy. After heavy fighting, Rome prevailed, and Jewish life effectively ended in those three territories. Alexandria had been the largest Jewish city in the world. The next Emperor, Hadrian, pulled out of Mesopotamia.

Bar Kochba

Hadrian rebuilt Jerusalem as Aelia Capitolina, a Roman colonia for the old X Legion, with a temple to Jupiter atop the Temple Mount. He built Roman roads to control movement between Judah and the Galilee. This dashed Jewish hopes of a rebuilt Temple, and led in AD 132 to the third and final Jewish War. Simon bar Koseva became Bar Kochba, “Son of  Star” (Numbers 24:17). He took the title of nasi, a prince at the End of Days. Rabbi Akiva proclaimed him messiah. He minted coins from “the year of the redemption of Israel.”

Again, the rebels relied upon surprise and irregular warfare. They literally went underground, in cramped tunnel systems. They appear to have put one of two Legions out of commission. Hadrian sent Sextus Julius Severus from Britannia, a general expert in counterinsurgency campaigns. Pro-Roman Jews, and possibly Christians, provided him with intelligence.

Severus finally boxed up Bar Kochba in the fortress city of Betar, near Jerusalem, in another brutal siege. The bloodshed beggars description. Dio reports that “nearly the whole of Judea was made desolate.” Myriads killed, myriads enslaved. Survivors resettled in the Galilee. Hadrian renamed the province Palestine. Judaism gave up militarism to become a spiritual superpower.

There wouldn’t be another Jewish revolt against Rome until AD 351, and the Persians wouldn’t return until AD 614—just before the rise of Islamic armies from Arabia.

Final Thoughts

The destruction of Second Temple Judaism led to the rise of Rabbinic Judaism and Christianity, the latter eventually converting Rome herself. Jews and Jewish Christians has to make sense of the destruction of the Temple and loss of Jerusalem. It was, in a very real sense, the end of their world. Many lost faith; others believed that God’s righteous judgment had fallen. Between the pro-Roman, pro-Parthian, and pro-independence factions were normal people just trying to survive.

And the Gospels must be read in the light of Vespasian and the Romano-Jewish War.