TheJewishWar

"The Great Revolt :

The First Jewish War (66 CE - 73 CE)

The first Jewish-Roman War (66 CE –73 CE ), sometimes called The Great Revolt (Hebrew: ha-Mered Ha-Gadol), was the first of three major rebellions by the Jews of Iudaea Province against the Roman Empire (the second was the Kitos War in 115–117; the third was Bar Kokhba's revolt, 132–135).

It began in the year 66 CE, stemming from Jewish tensions caused by years of corrupt Roman Government and brutal treatment. It ended when legions under Titus besieged and destroyed Jerusalem, looted and burned Herod's Temple (in the year 70 CE) and finally when the Jewish stronghold of Masada was captured (73 CE).

First Jewish successes

The revolt began in 66 CE .To protest against Roman oppression and excesses, the son of Kohen Gadol (High priest) Eliezar ben Hanania ceased prayers and sacrifices for the Roman Emperor at the Temple and subsequently led a successful attack on the Roman garrison stationed in Jerusalem. The pro-Roman king Agrippa II and his sister Berenice fled Jerusalem to Galilee, where later they gave themselves up to the Romans. Cestius Gallus, the legate of Syria, brought reinforcements to restore order, but was soundly defeated at the Battle of Beth Horon. At this point most of the Christians still in Jerusalem fled and hid in the mountainous region of Perea in particular in the city of Pella following Jesus prophesy of 33 years previous (Matt 24:16, Lu 21 : 20 -22, see also Eusebius "Ecclesiastical Histories" vol 3 ). The Jewish celebrations as a result of the Roman withdrawel were short lived however, just as they had been when the Babylonians temporarily withdrew to deal with the Egyptians near the end of King Zedekiahs reign.

The Romans Wreak Havoc

Emperor Nero appointed General Flavius Sabinus Vespasian to crush the rebellion. Vespasian (who had enjoyed previous military success but had fell out of imperial favour when he fell asleep during a poetry reading by Nero at the royal palace !) made Caesarea Maritima his headquarters .With his legions , (60,000 professional soldiers) he methodically cleared the coast and the North. Some towns gave up without a fight. By the year 68 CE, Jewish resistance in the North had been crushed.

The leaders of the collapsed Northern revolt, John of Giscala and Simon Bar Giora, managed to escape to Jerusalem. Brutal civil war erupted: the Zealots and Sicarii executed anyone advocating surrender, and by 68 CE the entire leadership of the southern revolt was dead, all killed by the Jews, none by the Romans.

After the death of Nero and with the backing of the army, Vespasian was proclaimed emperor in 69 CE and left for Rome to take the throne from Vitellius in a brief Roman civil war, the so-called "Year of the Four Emperors".

The Fall of Jerusalem

The siege of Jerusalem, the capital city, had begun early in the war, but had turned into a stalemate. Unable to breach the city's defenses, the Roman armies established a permanent camp , digging a trench and a wall of pointed stakes around the entire circumference of the city. This too was in fulfillment of Jesus prophecy as recorded at Luke 19: 43.

Anyone caught in the trench attempting to flee the city would be captured, impaled, and placed in lines on top of the dirt wall facing into Jerusalem.The two Zealot leaders, John of Gischala and Simon Bar Giora only ceased hostilities and joined forces to defend the city when the Romans began to construct ramparts for the siege. Tens of thousands of impaled bodies encircled Jerusalem by the end of the siege.

Titus Flavius, Vespasian's son, led the final assault and siege of Jerusalem. During the infighting inside the city walls, stockpiled supplies of dry food were intentionally burned by Jewish leaders to induce the defenders to fight against the Romans instead of negotiating peace; as a result many city dwellers and soldiers died of starvation during the siege. Josephus reports that prior to the Roman assault on Jerusalem, the city was full of Jewish pilgrims there to celebrate the Passover. With the food supply now destroyed, the famine became so grave that people were reduced to eating wisps of hay , leather and even their own children. (compare La 2: 11, 12, 19, 20; De 28:56, 57)

Zealots under Eleazar ben Simon held the Temple, Sicarii led by Simon Bar Giora held the upper city. Titus eventually wiped out the last remnants of Jewish resistance. He was so determined that nearly three years after the destruction of Jerusalem he was still hunting down rebellious Jews, including a determined band that held the mountain fortress Masada.

By the summer of 70 CE, the Romans had breached the walls of Jerusalem, ransacking and burning nearly the entire city. The Romans began by attacking the weakest spot which was the third wall. It was built shortly before the siege so it did not have as much time invested in its protection. They succeeded towards the end of May and shortly afterwards broke through the more important second wall. The Second Temple was destroyed on Tisha B'Av (July 29 or July 30), 70 CE. Tacitus, a historian of the time, notes that those who were besieged in Jerusalem amounted to no fewer than six hundred thousand, that men and women alike and every age engaged in armed resistance, everyone who could pick up a weapon did, both sexes showed equal determination, preferring death to a life of slavery to the Romans. All three walls were destroyed and in turn so was the Temple. John of Giscala surrendered at Agrippa II's fortress of Jotaphta and was sentenced to life imprisonment. The famous Arch of Titus still stands in Rome: it depicts Roman legionaries carrying off the Temple of Jerusalem's treasuries, including the menorah.

The Fall of Masada

During the spring of 71, Titus set sail for Rome. A new military governor was then appointed from Rome, Lucilius Bassus, whose assigned task was to undertake the "mopping-up" operations in Judaea. He used the legion X Fretensis to oppose the few remaining fortresses that still resisted. Bassus took Herodium, and then crossed the Jordan to capture the fortress of Machaerus on the shore of the Dead Sea. Due to illness, Bassus did not live to complete his mission. Lucius Flavius Silva replaced him, and moved against the last Jewish stronghold, Masada, in the autumn of 72. He used Legio X, auxiliary troops, and thousands of Jewish prisoners, for a total of 10,000 soldiers. After his orders for surrender were rejected, Silva established several base camps and circumvallated the fortress. According to Josephus, when the Romans finally broke through the walls of this citadel in 73 CE, they discovered that the 967 defenders had preferred death, than to be tortured by the Romans. Since suicide was not allowed by the Jewish religion, it is supposed that they killed each other until the last man, who was the only one who had to commit suicide.

Josephus claims that 1,100,000 people were killed during the "Great Revolt", of which a majority were Jewish. 97,000 were captured and enslaved. Many fled to areas around the Mediterranean.

Titus reportedly refused to accept a wreath of victory, as there is "no merit in vanquishing people forsaken by their own God".

The main account of the revolt comes from Josephus, the former Jewish commander of Galilee who switched over to the Roman side. Josephus had been granted citizenship and a pension in Rome and was well accepted at the courts of Vespasian, Titus and Domitian.

His popular works are The Wars of the Jews (c. 79) and Jewish Antiquities (c. 94) — He was loathed by the Jews as a turncoat and Roman apologist and never returned to his homeland after the fall of Jerusalem, living in Rome as an historian under the patronage of Flavius and Titus. His complete writings in PDF format are available for instant download below.