Dear Folk,
The country had been in semi-open revolt for three years. Six hundred of the occupying troops had been waylaid and killed. Even the high priest who was urging moderation had been assassinated. Rival groups of rebels fought with each other in the streets. Each group claimed that they were led by a savior who would lead the country out of its cruel slavery. In point of fact, the nation was not enslaved and things were going to get extremely worse. On September 1 or 2, 70 CE, the capital city would be utterly destroyed – burned and demolished. This date marks the destruction of the Lower City of Jerusalem.
It was not as though Rome really needed anything from Jerusalem but obedience. Being sent to govern Judea was to be sent to oblivion. There were constant civil strives, factions accusing each other of all sorts of disloyalty, holy men coming out of the desert to prophesy doom and to lead nasty sneaks armed with daggers. A Roman citizen was just not safe there. You might say, well then just leave. It was not that easy. If Judea refused to show respect to Rome and the Romans allowed it, every jerkwater province would be in rebellion within the year. So, it was business.
I am sure most of you remember that Jerusalem was Judea's capital city. How about a brief recap of some of its history? In 537 BCE, the Jews returned from their captivity in Babylon and started to rebuild The Temple as the "Second Temple." It took until about 515 BCE to complete it. In 440 BCE, Nechemiah got there from Babylon and rebuilt the walls of the city. Ezra got there about 5 years later and had a hand in the rebuilding of the city itself. The Temple got sort of ransacked by King Antiochus IV (a Greek king of the area) in 169 BCE. The Maccabees overthrew the Greeks and in 164 BCE rededicated the Second Temple. Caesar's old enemy Pompey captured Jerusalem in 63 BCE which set up Roman rule until 324 CE. In 37 BCE King Herod (the Great) built the Antonia fortress to guard the entrance to The Temple, a palace and three towers. He also worked to rebuild The Temple a bit. We do have record of a Pontius Pilate who was Roman procurator of Judea from 26- 36 CE. Jesus was said to be crucified under his rule, and most Christian scholars put that date somewhere around 33 CE. In 41-44 CE Agrippa, king of Judea built a new city wall (the "Third Wall"). So we have The Second Temple with a fortress (Antonia) to guard it, and around the city a relatively new wall.
Vespasian along with his energetic son Titus were sent to take command of the Roman Army of the East in 69 CE. It was time to put down the Judean uprising. The next year, with four legions of Roman troops ready, Titus decided it was time to demand respect. It was Passover, 70 CE, and the Holy City was crowded with tourists and the faithful who had come to celebrate the deliverance of the Jewish people from oppression. They had not even begun to feel the whip.
An interesting note: the Jewish defenses were originally headed by Josephus who had been a member of the Peace Party. The Zealots were impatient with his preparation for invasion and they fired him. The Romans captured him or he surrendered himself to them. Josephus was a careful recorder of events. It is through his records that we know this history. His books exist today. Go read them.
Titus was in direct command on Mount Scopus (to the West of the city) with the Fifth, Seventh and Fifteenth Legion. He had a blocking force of the Tenth Legion occupying Mount of Olives, the place where "Jesus wept," to the East. Give or take auxiliaries that put the Roman fighting force at 12,000- 16,000. On the side of the Jews there were two rival captains, John of Giscala who held the Temple, the Antonia fortress and the new town at Bezetha along with about 11,000 men, and Simon Eleazar the son of Giora who commanded the upper and lower city with about 10,000 men. Now that may seem like a pretty close battle with the Romans being outnumbered and the Jews holding a fortified town. It was. Do remember that the Roman force was trained, armored, and battle-hardened. The Jewish force were men who were shopkeepers, shepherds, and housewives (yes, the women fought, too) – a citizen's militia. This was to be no set-piece battle but a siege.
Titus' forces broke through the Third Wall after 15 days of fighting. That meant that the New City was taken by the Romans. The Second wall took ten days to fall. Now the siege got to the Antonia Fortress. It was the only way into the Temple and the citadel of Herod. Titus had the troops build siege engines – towers and causeways – to attack Antonia. However, these wooden structures were burnt in overnight raids by troops of John and Simon.
Titus then resorted to the traditional weapon of besieging armies: hunger. He had his men build a wall completely around the city. It took the forces three days of very hurried building to erect a wall 39 stadia (about 7800 meters or 4.5 miles) long. This wall was enough to ensure, with the aid of the Roman cavalry, that no one left and no food entered Jerusalem. The results were devastating. There were already too many folks inside Jerusalem due to the holiday. The food was not readily stored. Soon bands of men roamed the streets looking for anything in shops, spilled in the streets, anything. There were reports of cannibalism, perhaps overstated, amongst the walled in defenders and citizenry. Squabbles and outright conflict erupted between John and Simon's forces.
After about three weeks, battering rams and a cave-in of a mine shaft breached the walls of the Antonia. A three o'clock in the morning attack led to its fall. Titus had the Antonia Fortress reduced to rubble to construct mounds against the Temple walls. For another three weeks the defenders held the outer porticoes and then the inner of the Temple. The fighting was fierce and deadly on both sides. The Romans took enormous losses to gain entry.
Up to that point on August 10, 70 CE, the defenders were sure that God would save them. A Roman soldier hurled a torch into a hall next to the Holy of Holies.. The fire spread quickly throughout the building complex. The fighting moved forward onto the temple platform. Many Jews threw themselves into the fire instead of yielding to the Romans. The platform became a mass of smoking corpses.
The Romans did not stop there. They set fire to the palace in El Wad and moved to burn the Ophel. By this date, September 1-2 70 CE, they burned the Lower City of Jerusalem as far as the pool of Siloam. There still was the Upper City and a strong rampart to hold against the Romans. John and Simon's forces had been scavenging and evidently had quite a haul of everything but food. Eighteen days of further Roman preparation were enough to convince the defenders that it was a lost cause. John and Simon along with most of their men secretly left the city. Thus they left the Jewish citizenry alone to deal with the Roman legions.
One hundred and forty three days of besieging did not leave Titus in a very friendly mood. All the way along he had offered to stop the madness if only the Jews would lay down their weapons. He sent Josephus to try to reason with them. Then, again, they did not yield when Titus crucified 500 prisoners nor when Titus sent some of the live prisoners back inside minus their hands. Of course, they were called "Zealots" for a reason.
The walls of the Temple (except the West or Wailing Wall) and all the other city walls were demolished. Titus preserved the Upper City as a garrison for his Tenth Legion which he left to hold Jerusalem. During that siege, more than a million people perished due to fire, sword, disease, famine. The Jewish survivors of it were given an all expenses paid trip to Rome to see the gladiator combats and to feed the animals. Jewish slaves became fashionable throughout the Empire. The Jewish people were expatriated, and never since has sacrifice been offered up to God on Jewish altars. The seven-branched candlestick (Menorah), the golden table of the shew-bread and the golden trumpets were carried through the streets of Rome in triumph. Like I said, Titus was not in a good mood. He was quoted as saying "It is not I who have conquered. God, in His wrath against the Jews, has made use of my arm." We are not sure to which god Titus was referring.
Incidentally, the slaughter recommenced a couple of years later. The Emperor Hadrian dealt the final blow in 132 CE, as a result of another revolt led by a so-called Messiah, Bar Cocheba ("Son of the Star"), the Jews were again massacred leaving another million victims.
What have we learned from this? A well-organized military force can beat back a squabbling militia? It is better to besiege than to be besieged? Sometimes it is better not to let hotheads run your campaigns? How about: grasshopper is always wrong in argument with chicken?
A special birthday greeting to one of the prettiest ladies in the West Kingdom Lady Anna (Lori Hendrix) who graced this world with her presence starting on September 2nd. I know it must have been about 21 years ago but I am not telling. We are all better that you are here: Happy Birthday! Many thanks to the Baron Akmir for his help on Roman legion strength. Heck, he even played the Jewish side in a wargame scenario of this. That's dedication!
If you are out dumping hot chicken fat on the heads of Roman soldiers, tunneling under some ancient walls, or just snacking on your shoe leather and you want to send these missives on to others, go ahead, you crazy zealot, I love it. Do remember to keep my name and sig attached.
We Remember Thee Zion,
J. Ellsworth Weaver
SCA – Sir Balthazar of Endor
AS – Polyphemus Theognis
TRV – Sebastian Yeats