would
proceed with their gruesome plan. They then pulled out their daggers—the same daggers
that had given them their identity, the daggers that had, with a swipe across the
high priest’s throat, launched the ill-fated war with Rome—and began to kill their
wives and their children, before turning the knives upon each other. The last ten
men chose one among them to kill the remaining nine. The final man set the entire
palace ablaze. Then he killed himself.
The following morning, as the Romans stood triumphantly atop the hitherto impregnable
fortress of Masada, all they encountered was a ghostly calm: nine hundred and sixty
dead men, women, and children. The war was finally over.
The question is why it took so long.
News of the Jewish Revolt had traveled swiftly to EmperorNero, who immediately tapped one of his most trusted men, Titus Flavius Vespasianus—Vespasian,
as he was known—to retake Jerusalem. Taking command of a massive army of more than
sixty thousand fighting men, Vespasian set off at once for Syria, while his son Titus
went to Egypt to collect the Roman legions stationed in Alexandria. Titus would lead
his troops north through Idumea as Vespasian pushed south into Galilee. The plan was
for father and son to squeeze the Jews between their two armies and choke the life
out of the rebellion.
One by one the rebellious cities gave way to the might of Rome as Titus and Vespasian
carved a trail of destruction across the Holy Land. By 68 C.E ., all of Galilee, as well as Samaria, Idumea, Peraea, and the entire Dead Sea region,
save for Masada, were firmly back under Roman control. All that remained was for Vespasian
to send his armies into Judea to lay waste to the seat of the rebellion: Jerusalem.
As he was preparing for the final assault, however, Vespasian received word that Nero
had committed suicide. Rome was in turmoil. Civil war was tearing through the capital.
In the span of a few short months, three different men—Galba, Otho, and Vitellius—declared
themselves emperor, each in turn violently overthrown by his successor. There was
a complete breakdown of law and order in Rome as thieves and hooligans plundered the
population without fear of consequence. Not since the war between Octavian and Mark
Antony a hundred years earlier had the Romans experienced such civil unrest. Tacitus
described it as a period “rich in disasters, terrible with battles, torn by civil
struggles, horrible even in peace.”
Spurred by the legions under his command, Vespasian halted his campaign in Judea and
hastened to Rome to stake his own claim to the throne. The haste, it seems, was unnecessary.
Long before he reached the capital in the summer of 70 C.E ., his supporters had taken control of the city, murdered his rivals, and declared
Vespasian sole emperor.
Yet the Rome that Vespasian now found himself ruling had undergonea profound transformation. The mass civil unrest had given rise to a great deal of
consternation about the decline of Roman power and influence. The situation in distant
Judea was particularly galling. It was bad enough that the lowly Jews had rebelled
in the first place; it was inconceivable that after three long years, the rebellion
still had not been crushed. Other subject peoples revolted, of course. But these were
not Gauls or Britons; they were superstitious peasants hurling rocks. The very scale
of the Jewish Revolt, and the fact that it had come at a time of profound social and
political distress in Rome, had created something akin to an identity crisis among
the Roman citizenry.
Vespasian knew that to consolidate his authority and address the malaise that had
descended upon Rome, he needed to focus the people’s attention away from their domestic
troubles and toward a spectacular foreign conquest. A small victory would not do.
What the emperor required was an absolute pummeling of an enemy force. He needed a
proceed with their gruesome plan. They then pulled out their daggers—the same daggers
that had given them their identity, the daggers that had, with a swipe across the
high priest’s throat, launched the ill-fated war with Rome—and began to kill their
wives and their children, before turning the knives upon each other. The last ten
men chose one among them to kill the remaining nine. The final man set the entire
palace ablaze. Then he killed himself.
The following morning, as the Romans stood triumphantly atop the hitherto impregnable
fortress of Masada, all they encountered was a ghostly calm: nine hundred and sixty
dead men, women, and children. The war was finally over.
The question is why it took so long.
News of the Jewish Revolt had traveled swiftly to EmperorNero, who immediately tapped one of his most trusted men, Titus Flavius Vespasianus—Vespasian,
as he was known—to retake Jerusalem. Taking command of a massive army of more than
sixty thousand fighting men, Vespasian set off at once for Syria, while his son Titus
went to Egypt to collect the Roman legions stationed in Alexandria. Titus would lead
his troops north through Idumea as Vespasian pushed south into Galilee. The plan was
for father and son to squeeze the Jews between their two armies and choke the life
out of the rebellion.
One by one the rebellious cities gave way to the might of Rome as Titus and Vespasian
carved a trail of destruction across the Holy Land. By 68 C.E ., all of Galilee, as well as Samaria, Idumea, Peraea, and the entire Dead Sea region,
save for Masada, were firmly back under Roman control. All that remained was for Vespasian
to send his armies into Judea to lay waste to the seat of the rebellion: Jerusalem.
As he was preparing for the final assault, however, Vespasian received word that Nero
had committed suicide. Rome was in turmoil. Civil war was tearing through the capital.
In the span of a few short months, three different men—Galba, Otho, and Vitellius—declared
themselves emperor, each in turn violently overthrown by his successor. There was
a complete breakdown of law and order in Rome as thieves and hooligans plundered the
population without fear of consequence. Not since the war between Octavian and Mark
Antony a hundred years earlier had the Romans experienced such civil unrest. Tacitus
described it as a period “rich in disasters, terrible with battles, torn by civil
struggles, horrible even in peace.”
Spurred by the legions under his command, Vespasian halted his campaign in Judea and
hastened to Rome to stake his own claim to the throne. The haste, it seems, was unnecessary.
Long before he reached the capital in the summer of 70 C.E ., his supporters had taken control of the city, murdered his rivals, and declared
Vespasian sole emperor.
Yet the Rome that Vespasian now found himself ruling had undergonea profound transformation. The mass civil unrest had given rise to a great deal of
consternation about the decline of Roman power and influence. The situation in distant
Judea was particularly galling. It was bad enough that the lowly Jews had rebelled
in the first place; it was inconceivable that after three long years, the rebellion
still had not been crushed. Other subject peoples revolted, of course. But these were
not Gauls or Britons; they were superstitious peasants hurling rocks. The very scale
of the Jewish Revolt, and the fact that it had come at a time of profound social and
political distress in Rome, had created something akin to an identity crisis among
the Roman citizenry.
Vespasian knew that to consolidate his authority and address the malaise that had
descended upon Rome, he needed to focus the people’s attention away from their domestic
troubles and toward a spectacular foreign conquest. A small victory would not do.
What the emperor required was an absolute pummeling of an enemy force. He needed a
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