268 The Moody Atlas of the Bible

THe firsT jeWisH revoLT

Throughout much of the first Christian century a combination of Hellenistic secularism, Roman politics, and Jewish ideology created a strange alchemy in Palestinian culture and society. The Roman procurators were sometimes cruel and defiant, sometimes corrupt or contemptuous of Jewish religious practices, and always eager to impose an excessive tax burden. Jewish sectarianism, in response,

had long been a breeding ground for voices of insurrection and resistance movements. Even among those who had attempted to avoid confrontation with Rome, increasingly bold and bitterly resentful sounds could be heard concerning Rome’s tyrannical imperialism.630 Then there was the Jewish nationalist sect known as the Zealots that was fervently and absolutely committed to the creation of an independent Jewish state at any cost. (Josephus referred to this as a “fourth philosophy,” in contrast to the three longstanding philosophical groups of Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes.)631 Suspicions fanned mutual animosities, and covert intrigue often gave way to open hostility. An atmosphere had been created in Judea in which revolution was imminent.

The lofty and isolated mesa of Masada is crowned with architecture from the time of Herod the Great. A 300-foot elevated siege ramp built by the Romans is visible on its west side (right side of the picture), in order to employ siege machines and battering rams to capture the city, thus ending the First Jewish Revolt.

269The Historical Geography of the Land

A series of altercations occurred in rapid succession during the spring and early summer of a.d. 66 that ignited the explosion of revolt. Jewish anger was violently inflamed at Caesarea when an unscrupulous individual offered a “pagan” sacrifice at the entrance of a Jewish synagogue, desecrating the house of worship. When Jewish authorities attempted to halt the offense, a cry of violence arose from the general population of Caesarea, and the Jews were obliged to steal away rather quickly with their Torah scroll to a nearby town.632

Swift Jewish retaliation for the Caesarean affront came in the form of a theological edict: all sacrifices by foreigners, including those brought for the Caesar himself, would henceforth be refused in Jerusalem. Only Jewish countrymen would be permitted to enter the sacred precincts of the Temple. Soon thereafter, the Roman procurator Gessius Florus (a.d. 64–66) appeared in Jerusalem and, probably as an act of reprisal, demanded an exorbitant payment from the Temple treasury. When the Jews endeavored to rebuke the procurator for his outrageous demand, Florus ordered his troops to murder and plunder at will. Jewish citizens were subjected to rape, public whipping, looting, and crucifixion. Altogether there were about 3,600 Jewish casualties, including some children.633

Jerusalem immediately erupted into revolt. Jewish insurgents swarmed through the streets, first overpowering the Roman soldiers and driving them from the Upper City, and then setting fire to the Herodian palace of Agrippa II and the house of the high priest (who was perceived as having been solicitous of Rome). [See map 94.] They torched the official archives, destroying all records of debts and debtors, and they assaulted and burned the Roman Antonia fortress. Meanwhile, other rebels occupied the fortresses of Masada, Machaerus, and Cyprus, eventually returning to Jerusalem with a cache of armaments for their allies there.634

After word of the outbreak reached the governor Cestius Gallus, he immediately set out from Antioch in Syria toward Jerusalem with his 12th Imperial Legion and some additional troops, a total force said to number more than 30,000 men. He passed Ptolemais and Caesarea, and he set Lydda ablaze. But while attempting to ascend through the pass at Beth-horon,635 Gallus’s veteran forces were ambushed by the guerilla tactics at which the freedom fighters had become quite adept. Although the legionnaires finally arrived at

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270 The Moody Atlas of the Bible

Jerusalem and even managed to breach the “third wall,” they were unsuccessful in penetrating the inner city. In due course they were forced to disengage. Rome lost an imperial eagle, some siege equipment, and the better part of a rear guard as the Jews gained temporary national autonomy and prepared for a full-scale Roman counteroffensive. Command of the Galilean district—one of seven Jewish military divisions—was given to a priest named Joseph, known today as the historian Josephus Flavius.636

Rome did not disappoint. The emperor Nero ordered Vespasian to the battlefield. Vespasian was a general who had earlier distinguished himself in Germania and had masterfully added Britannia to the empire.637 He mobilized three legions (the 5th, 10th, and 15th—an estimated force of between 55,500 and 57,500 men)638 to suppress the Jewish menace once and for all. Upon his arrival at Ptolemais from Antioch in Syria in the spring of a.d. 67, Vespasian mapped out a skillful and deliberate strategy to gain an ever-tightening grip on the center of the revolt—Jerusalem. He began his systematic dismembering of the Jewish rebellion by attacking Galilee, one of Jerusalem’s strongest philosophical allies. His forces swept into the fortress of Sepphoris without resistance. Josephus’s troops had retreated to Jotapata, where they were forced to surrender some 47 days later [1]. Vespasian dispatched a secondary force to quell an uprising atop Mt. Gerizim [2] as he led his main army from Caesarea across the Jezreel valley639 to Taricheae, the Galilean center of the revolt. A decisive battle ensued at the nearby cliffs of Arbel and then at the town itself, followed by a one-sided, extremely gruesome, bloody naval battle on the Sea of Galilee.640

The Romans quickly moved across the Jordan and subdued the imposing fortress at Gamala [3]. Vespasian dispatched his son Titus with the command to vanquish the revolutionaries at Gischala [4], succeeding both in silencing the rebellion in Galilee and in severing its lifeline to Babylonia. Before the onset of winter, Joppa fell before a land and sea attack [5], the cities of Jamnia and Azotus were brought under Roman control [6], and the transportation/communication corridor to Egypt was secured.641

After wintering his legionnaires at Caesarea and Scythopolis, Vespasian’s a.d. 68 campaign was no less skillfully contrived. Tightening his grip on Jerusalem, Vespasian moved with alacrity to subjugate Perea and Idumea. When his forces had seized Gadara [7], he returned to Caesarea with his main army while a secondary force swept southward as far as Bezemoth [8], effectively

neutralizing all major Transjordanian resistance apart from Machaerus. Vespasian at that point embarked on a southward mission from Caesarea into Idumea. He subdued Antipatris, Thamna, Lydda, and Emmaus, where he positioned the 5th Legion of soldiers. Continuing their southward advance, his troops captured Betogabris and Caphartobas, where a garrison of soldiers was deployed to further harass the Idumeans and to gain nominal control of Jerusalem’s southern egress [9]. But his main army backtracked from Caphartobas toward Samaria, stationing an additional garrison at Adida along the way.642 Vespasian himself marched eastward beyond Shechem, proceeded past Coreae, and captured New Testament Jericho, where he stationed the 10th Legion [10]. At the same time, a contingent of troops was sent north from Jericho to seize the town of Gerasa [11].643 Roman legions now had complete control of the only highway from Jerusalem into the Transjordanian interior and beyond, the two major highways from the holy city to the Mediterranean Sea, and the city’s southern outlet toward Hebron, Beersheba, and Egypt.

Vespasian returned to Caesarea in June, a.d. 68. He was preparing for an all-out offensive against Jerusalem itself, when he learned of the suicide of Nero.644 During the next year, the imperium saw a rapid succession of occupants: Galba, Otho, and Vitellius. But a Flavian dynasty had arisen by late a.d. 69 and Vespasian himself ascended to the imperial throne in Rome. So it was his son Titus who was destined to subdue the remaining strongholds of Jewish resistance. In the spring of a.d. 70, Titus marched from Alexandria to Caesarea, approached Jerusalem from the north, and laid siege to the holy city directly [12]. Overpowered by the force of four determined Roman legions, Jerusalem fell to the forces of Titus in late August of that year. [See map 96.]

Following the capture of Jerusalem, three fortresses were all that remained of the revolt. Herodium [13a] and Machaerus [13b] fell with little difficulty, and only Masada remained. In a.d. 73, a new and ambitious provincial governor—Flavius Silva—turned his undivided attention toward the one remaining stronghold. After completely surrounding the site with a massive siege wall made of stones, Silva constructed an elevated ramp more than 300 feet high against the rock face of the fortress on the west side. Siege machines and battering rams from the top of the ramp would eventually do their damage and Masada would fall,645 finally fulfilling (posthumously) Nero’s dream of destroying the Jewish menace [14].