SECT. III. — THE REVOLT OF JUDEA AND DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM
In regard to the Jews, Claudius followed the policy of Tiberius. Their worship was checked in Italy; but toleration was granted to them in their own land and in the east. Claudius went even further. He gave all the lands which had formed the kingdom of Herod to his friend Herod Agrippa, thus returning, as he loved to do, to the system of Augustus. By this means direct collision between the Romans and Jews was avoided; Agrippa acted as intermediate. But when he died in 44 A.D., his son Agrippa, aged seventeen years, was considered too young to take his father’s place, and Judea was once more made a province of subordinate rank. From this moment a spirit of hatred and rebellion fermented in Judea. The Jews had not forgotten how Gaius had insisted upon receiving divine honors; they feared that another Emperor might do the same, and regarded all Roman Emperors as abominable. National sentiment and religious bigotry were inseparable for the Jews; and the fanatics burned to cast off the Roman yoke or die in the attempt.
The insurrection did not break out till 66 A.D., but it was prepared during twenty-two years. The great fault of the Romans was that, instead of stamping out the elements of opposition, they tried to humor an irreconcilable people, and yielded, wherever it was possible, to the prejudices and absurd demands of the Jews. Thus a Roman soldier was executed because he had torn a roll of the law. Another mistake was that too small a military force was kept in the province and was mainly recruited from the province itself. As for the Jews, they brought their destruction upon themselves. The high priests were worthless and violent, and took advantage of the yielding spirit of their rulers to make most unreasonable demands. During these twenty-two years the Romans were continually trying to suppress the brigands of the hills, whom the Jews called Zealots. They combined the spirit of the robber with that of the religious fanatic. Cuspius Fadus, the 6rst procurator under Claudius, routed them out of their strongholds and slew them. But the evil broke out again under his successor, Tiberius Alexander, a nephew of the philosopher Philo, and he succeeded in capturing two noted leaders, Jacobus and Simon, sons of Judas the Galilean, whom he crucified. There was a constant feud between Galilee and Samaria, and the latter district was subject to the incursions of armed bands of Galilean brigands. This led to a serious collision in the year 52 A.D., in which Ummidius Quadratus, the governor of Syria, was obliged to interfere. The affair was attributed to the rivalry of the two procurators, Cumanus of Galilee, and Felix of Judea and Samaria; and Quadratus having held an investigation punished Cumanus, and pleased the Jews by executing a tribune, named Celer, in Jerusalem. Felix, who was equally to blame, escaped, because he was the brother of the powerful freedman Pallas, and the husband of Agrippa’s sister Drusilla. The troubles continued under Festus and Albinus, the successors of Felix. War against Rome was preached in the streets; miracles and prophecies were the order of the day; the Zealots of the hills were as violent as ever. There was no real grievance. It was not the case of an oppressed people rising against oppressors, or bondmen straggling for their freedom. The war was due to the fanaticism of short-sighted peasants.
The authority over the temple and its treasures, and the nomination of the high priests, had been assigned in 44 A.D., not to the procurator, but to Herod of Chalcis, and after his death in 48 A.D. had been transferred to his heir Agrippa. In 53 A.D. Agrippa had received, instead of Chalcis, the districts of Batanea, Auranitis, Trachonitis, Gaulonitis, and Abilene, along with the title of king, and two years later he received from Nero Tiberias and Tarichea in Galilee, and Julias in Peraea. Agrippa stood by the Romans faithfully throughout the Jewish war.
The insurrection broke out under the procurator Gessius Florus (64-66). Caesarea was inhabited by Greeks and Jews, possessing the same civil rights, the Jews being the more numerous. But under Nero the Greeks disputed the rights of the Jews, and appealed to the government at Rome. Burrus decided in favor of the Greeks, and the citizenship was declared to be a privilege which did not belong to the Jews (62 A.D.). This decision led to tumults in the town. Finally the Jews left Caesarea, but were compelled by the governor to return, and then slaughtered in a street riot (Aug. 6, 66 A.D.).
In Jerusalem, things came to a crisis at the same time. The Jews were divided into two parties; the men of moderation, who, putting their trust in the Lord, were ready to endure Roman rule without resistance, and the men of action, who resolved to found the kingdom of heaven by the sword. The former were the Pharisees, the latter the Zealots, and the power of the Zealots was on the increase. To this party belonged Eleazar, son of the high priest Ananias. He was a young man of upright character; but it has been said of him that his virtues were more dangerous than his father’s vices. He was overseer of the Temple, and he forbade those who did not belong to the Jewish faith to present offerings to Jehovah in the outer court, although this had always been permitted by tradition. He refused to listen to the remonstrances of the wiser Jews. The moderate party resolved to make an attempt to put down the fanatics. They asked the Romans and King Agrippa for help; and Agrippa sent some cavalry. But Jerusalem was filled with extreme patriots and desperadoes known as “men of the dagger”, who were ready to exterminate supporters of Roman rule. The Roman garrison in the citadel was surprised and cut to pieces. The greater number of the moderates, the soldiers of Agrippa, and some Romans, occupied the king’s palace on Zion, but could not maintain their position against overwhelming numbers, and capitulated. Free departure was refused to the Romans, but they were assured that their lives would be spared. But they were disarmed and cut to pieces. Ananias the high priest and other leaders of the moderate party were slain. After the victory a quarrel broke out between Eleazar, who seems to have felt remorse for the perfidy of his followers and his father’s death, and Manahem, the most violent of “the men of the dagger”. It ended in the execution of Manahem.
Thus, in Caesarea the foes of the Jews had slaughtered the Jews; in Jerusalem the Jews had slaughtered their foes; and it was said that both events happened on the same day. Other Greek towns followed the example of Caesarea. The Jews in Damascus, Gadara, Scythopolis, Ascalon, were massacred. The bitterness against them broke out, too, in Alexandria, and the street-tumults required the interference of the Roman troops. As soon as Cestius Gallus, the governor of Syria, heard what had happened in Jerusalem, he set forth with his troops to put down the insurgents. His army consisted of about 20,000 Roman soldiers, and 13,000 auxiliaries from the dependent kingdoms, along with forces of Syrian militia. Having taken Joppa and slain its inhabitants, he marched on Jerusalem, and stood before its walls in September. But the strong fortifications defied him, and he was driven back with serious loss. The news of the failure of Gallus reached Nero in Greece, and he appointed Mucianus legatus of Syria, and assigned to Vespasian the task of quelling the Jewish rebellion, as an independent legatus.
The three legions, which had been sent from the Illyric lands to carry on the war with Parthia, were perhaps already returning to their original stations. If so, they were now sent back on account of the rebellion. Two of them, V. Macedonica and XV. Apollinaris, were given to Vespasian, along with one of the Syrian legions, X. Fretensis. The other additional legion, IV. Scythica, took the place of the Xth in Syria, and remained there permanently. In addition to his three legions and their auxilia, Vespasian had large bodies of troops contributed by the dependent kings of Commagene, Emesa, and Nabatea, as well as by Agrippa. The whole army, amounting to more than 50,000 men, was mustered at Ptolemais in spring, 67 A.D., and entered Palestine. The entire country, Galilee and Samaria, as well as Judea, was now in the hands of the insurgents, with the exception of the Greek towns. They had taken and destroyed Anthedon and Gaza, but after they had failed at Ascalon, they confined themselves to defensive measures, and did not meet the Romans in the open field. Vespasian’s plan was slow, but sure. He decided to make no attempt against Jerusalem until he had isolated it by reducing the surrounding districts. The first campaign was occupied with the reduction of Galilee, and the coast as far as Ascalon. In this warfare the historian Josephus played a considerable part. The siege of Jotapata, which he defended, lasted forty-five days. He was a member of the moderate party, but was appointed commander in Galilee. Josephus escaped with his life, and found favor with Vespasian, whose client he became, adopting the name Titus Flavius. During the following winter, Vespasian kept two legions at Caesarea, and stationed the third at Scythopolis, so as to cut off communications between Judea and Galilee, in the spring of 68 A.D. he proceeded