War

In the previous piece I indicated that Gessius Florus was a very bad governor of Judea. The straw that broke the camel's back came when Florus robbed the treasury of the temple of 17 talents silver. That happened in 66 AD, and caused rows.

When the legate of Syria, the boss of Florus, investigated the matter people kept quiet, but when the investigator left things began to heat up.

The priest Eleazer proposed to suspend the daily sacrifice for the emperor and that happened. (The Jews were not obliged to sacrifice to the Roman gods or the emperor but had to sacrifice for his well-being.)

This suspension meant revolt. Many Jewish leaders did like what happened, and tried to stop the revolt, but they did not succeed. The Zealots took the lead, they conquered Massada near the Dead Sea, and subsquently Jerusalem as well.

Their leader was one Menahem, maybe a son of Judas of Galilee, who is mentioned in the Bible.(Acts 5:37). But Menahem had the father of Eleazer murdered, because he opposed the revolt. Although Eleazer did not agree with his father in this respect he thought he had to revenge his father, and had in his turn Menahem murdered. The Roman troops in Jerusalem were murdered as well.

The legate of Syria tried to reconquer Jerusalem, but did not succeed. When we withdrew he fell in a trap, and many Roman soldiers were killed.

This made the evolt very popular. From that moment on the majority of the population supported it. Commanders were appointed for the different areas.

One Joseph, from a family of priests, became commander in Galilee.

Nero appointed Vespasian as Roman commander to suppress the revolt. That was remarkable, because Vespasian had fallen in disgrace not long before. He had yawned during a recitation of Nero, who saw himself as a great artist, and was very sensitive in this respect.

However, Vespasian was an experienced general.

He started by conquering Galilee, which was not very difficult.

Joseph was arrested, but saved his life by predicting that Vespasian would become emperor. It is thought Joseph thought the Messiah might be a Roman, maybe Vespasian himself.

In the end Joseph was adopted, and we know him as Flavius Fosephus since that time. He is the author of a number of important works about the history of the Jews.

In 68 AD the Romans had reconquered everything except Jerusalem and its environment, and a few fortresses e.g. Masada.

But then more revolts arose in the Roman empire (a.o. the Bataves lead by Julius Civilis revolted); Nero was deposed by the Senate and committed suicide. De senaat appointed Galba as his successor.

Vespasian decided to wait, and to keep his army in reserve. Maybe he could become emperor, Jerusalem could wait.

Galba was an old man, and he appointed quite soon one Piso as his successor.

Otho, the man who had offered his wife Poppaea to Nero as a mistress, wanted to become the successor of Galba. When this did not happen he had Galba and Piso murdered, and became emperor himself.

Vitellius, commander in Germany, wanted to become emperor himself and marched with his army to Rome. On the banks of the Po a battle took place, won by Vitelllius. Otho committed suicide and Vitellius became emperor.

Then Vespasian indicated that he wanted to become emperor, and occupied Egypt. That was the granary of Rome at that time, and the occupation gave him the control of the supply of corn to Rome.

One Antonius Primus, commander of Austria, declared to be a supporter of Vespasia, and marched with his army to Rome.

He defeated the troops of Vitellius near Verona, and occupied Rome in the name of Vespasian. Vespasian became emperor, and instructed his son Titus to conquer Jerusalem and the remaining fortresses. Vespasian is famous for two things: he ordered to built the Colosseum, where in later time many Christians lost theit lives, and he spoke the famous words: "Pecunia non olet ("Money does not smell")”. He said that to Titus, when Vespasian asked money from tanners for the use of urine from the urinals he had ordered to build.

So the Jews got a pause of about one year in the warfare.

But they did not utilize this pause. Three parties competed for power in Jerusalem. Only after one of the leaders of a party was murdered (during the siege), the remaining two made piece.

Many Jews saw the Roman civil wars as a sign the Roman empire would collapse, and they thought the Messiah would come at that time. The Christians used the pause to flee to Pella.

In April of the year 70 Titus started the siege of Jerusalem. Just before that a great number of pilgrims had entered Jerusalem to celebrate Pesach.

That caused great problems for the food supply, always the weak point in a besieged city.

In the end of the siege even cannibalism occurred.

Flavius Josephus tried to convince the Jews to surrender. He did not succeed.

The Romans did not trust him, because they did not understand him, and the Jews did not trust him because they did understand him.

On the 24st of July the fortress Antonia was conquered by the Romans. Twelve days later the daily sacrifice was interrupted, and on the 29th of Augustus the Temple was conquered and burned. It was the day the destruction of the first Temple was celebrated. It is not clear, whether Titus ordered the fire. Jerusalem was destroyed and the Temple plundered.

The Romans brought their standards in the area of the Temple, and sacrificed there.

The Jews saw this as a fulfillment of the prophesy of Daniel, about the taking away the sacrifice and the abomination, as in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes.

Then the sacrifice was resumed after three years, and the temple cleaned, but since the interruption of 70 AD the sacrifice is not resumed.

Many Jews were killed are or put into slavery.

Famous is the triumphal arch of Titus in Rome, which displays the menorah, which was removed from the temple. For years Vespasian stroke coins with himself as the victor of Judea. The three remaining fortresses were also conquered, Massada as the last one, after a siege of three years, and the suicide of the defenders. In connection with this war Tacitus, the famous Roman historian, writes in an extraordinary malicious way about the Jews and their history.

If one assumes that he presents the ideas of the Roman elite, then one may wonder how such a change had happened. For once the Romans and the Jews were allies, and Julius Caesar clearly favoured the Jews.

The destruction of the Temple had great consequences for the Jewish religion. After all, the service in the Temple was its centre.