The History of Rome: Rise and Fall of the Empire. John Bagnell Bury
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The fugitives, who were driven from their homes by the Roman soldiers, flocked to increase the multitude collected in Jerusalem. Vespasian then took up quarters at Jericho. Samaria was occupied in the north, Idumea in the south, and the legions were about to advance on Jerusalem, when the news of Nero’s death arrived. Vespasian was not disposed to put himself in a false position by continuing to act as legatus, until his powers should be renewed by Nero’s successor. Military operations were therefore suspended, and before Galba could send his commands to Vespasian, winter had approached. The fall of Galba and the struggle between Otho and Vitellius gave the Jews a still longer respite; and when, after the proclamation of Vitellius, Vespasian began to resume operations, his own elevation again interrupted the warfare, and it was not till the spring of 70 A.D. that his son Titus marched against Jerusalem to end the miserable episode.
Jerusalem, in the meantime, was a scene of wild confusion. The leader of the moderate party had been slain, the Zealots reigned supreme, and quarreled and fought among themselves. There were three main parties. One headed by Eleazar, son of Simon, and consisting of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, occupied the inner enclosure of the Temple. The outer court of the Temple was held by John of Giscala and his Galileans. Another party, under Simon, son of Gioras, of Gerasa, held the upper town, the hill of Zion. But when the Romans came, these factions composed their differences, and fought side by side. Eleazar’s party placed itself under John, and thus the rivalry was narrowed to two competitors, Simon in the city and John in the Temple.
Titus might have blockaded the city, and starved the inhabitants out, but he wished to inaugurate the new Flavian dynasty and make his own reputation by a brilliant exploit. Jerusalem was defended on all sides by impregnable rocks, except on the north, on which side it had been attacked by the Assyrians, and more recently by Pompeius. Herod Agrippa had attempted to strengthen the fortifications on this accessible side, but the Romans had prevented him. The walls which he had planned were hastily raised under the direction of the Sanhedrim during the insurrection. The task of Titus was not an easy one. When he had stormed the outer wall, and penetrated into the new city, a second wall met him which he had to pass before he could reach the lower city on the hill of Acra. Then he had to storm the temple, surrounded by an inner and an outer wall, and the adjoining citadel, called Antonia. The strong defenses of Zion, on which the upper city was built, and the palace of Herod, still remained.
The forces of Titus had been increased by another legion from Syria, XII. Fulminata. The first wall resisted for a long time nil the attempts of the assailants, but at length fell beneath the hattering-ram. Many of the besieged would then have been willing to submit, in fear of the famine which threatened them, and the Roman general sent Josephus to the wall to offer honorable terms. But the chiefs would not hear of surrender. Then Titus drew a wall of circumvallation round the city, and cut off all external supplies from the inhabitants, while they continued their attacks on the second wall. The sufferings of the Jews from famine became terrible; a woman was known to kill her child for food. At this time a half-witted fanatic, Joshua, the son of Hanan, went about the public places shouting, “A voice of ruin from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south!” and “Woe to Jerusalem!”. None dared to hinder or punish him. One day he uttered a new cry, “Woe to me also!” and at the same moment he was killed by a stone from a catapult of the besiegers. All sorts of portents were said to have occurred. The doors of the Temple burst open, and a voice more than human cried, “Let us depart hence!” and a great sound of departure was heard,
At last, at the end of three months, the second wall was passed, and the citadel Antonia taken. This castle, close to the temple, and overlooking it, was destroyed by the Romans, except one wing, which was left standing as a watch-tower. Titus then allowed considerable numbers of the population to leave the town; but the Zealots remained deaf to the expostulations of Josephus, and the admonitions of the Jews who had been taken captive in the lower city. They refused to spare the temple by timely submission to the besiegers. They carried on the work of defence with no regard to the sacred character of the place, and even desecrated the Holy of Holies by their presence. For a long time they baffled the assaults of the Romans; but the defence of the outer temple-wall gradually relaxed, and at length the burning missiles of the assailants set fire to the northern portico. The two leaders, John of Giscala, and Simon, son of Gioras, with some of their followers, escaped by the connecting causeway which they broke down behind them, into the upper city. But the multitude and the priests stood firm in the inner enclosure. The Romans with difficulty passed the outer wall, making a path for themselves with the help of fire, which soon spread and consumed the royal porch of Herod. Many of the Jews perished in the flames, the rest were cut down in a final struggle. The Temple and its treasures were burned to the ground (August). The chiefs still lay behind the defenses of the upper city, hopeless, yet resolved not to yield. But discord raged among the garrison of the last stronghold, and a large number of Jews gave themselves up to the Romans. The rest were reduced by famine, and the chiefs at last abandoned the defence of the rampart, and sought refuge in the subterranean passages with which the hill was honeycombed and by which they hoped to reach the valleys beyond. The Romans then entered; and slew, plundered, and burned (September 2nd). The siege had lasted over five months, but at length Jerusalem was laid in ruins. Simon and John, unable to escape in the underground galleries, and pressed by hunger, came forth from their holes, and surrendered. The life of John was spared, but Simon was reserved for the triumph, and put to death afterwards. Those of the insurgents who escaped, held out for years in the rock fortresses of Massada and Machaerus, near the Dead Sea. The captives were put to death or sold into slavery. Many died from starvation, refusing to accept food from their warders.
Although Vespasian and Titus disdained to add to their names the title Judaicus, drawn from a people whom they despised, they did not omit to celebrate a triumph in honor of the victory; and an arch was erected by the senate to Titus after his death on which may be still seen a sculpture of the golden candlestick with seven branches, which was rescued from the sanctuary of the Temple Another arch was erected during his lifetime in the Circus, and the dedication celebrates his capture of Jerusalem, “which all leaders, kings and nations before him had either attacked in vain or left wholly unattempted”. The statement is ludicrously false; and if we can excuse the senate for ignorance of the Assyrian siege or even of that of Antiochus Epiphanes, we cannot understand their ignoring Pompeius.
The demolition of Jerusalem, which lay in ruins as Carthage and Corinth had once lain, deprived the Jewish nation of a centre. The high priesthood and the Sanhedrim were abolished, and the Israelites were left without a head The yearly tribute which every Jew, wherever he dwelled, used to send to the temple, was now, by a sort of bitter parody, to be sent to the temple of Capitoline Jupiter. It is a disputed question whether Titus really wished to destroy the Temple with all its wonders, or whether its destruction was an accident which he deplored. It seems, on the whole, more likely that its destruction was part of the political scheme which the Roman government had devised, to settle the petty, but troublesome Jewish question once for all. It should be taken in connection with the fact that Vespasian at the same time closed the Temple of Onias near Memphis in Egypt, the chief sanctuary of the Egyptian Jews. The conflagration was a matter for praise to the Roman poet Valerius Flaccus, who, in the invocation of his “Argonautica”, celebrates Titus for scattering the torches in Solyma:
Solymo nigrantem pulvere fratrem,
Spargentemque faces et in omni turre furentem.
Judea became a province of the Empire, and the camp of the Xth legion, which was left as its garrison, was pitched on the ruins of the fallen capital. Henceforward, the troops levied in Judea were employed elsewhere. A settlement of Roman veterans was made at Emmaus. In Samaria, the chief town, Sichem, was organized under the name Flavia Neapolis, as a Greek city. On the other hand, Caesarea, hitherto a Greek city, was made a Flavian Colonia of Roman type. King Agrippa, who had supported the Romans loyally, retained his possessions as long as he lived; but on his death, about thirty years later, his kingdom was incorporated in the province of Syria.
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