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Battles: The Siege of Jerusalem
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Posted by Webmaster on September 19 2004, 06:44 AM
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The Siege of Jerusalem was one of the most gruesome scenes in Jewish history and an example of the excellent siege tactics of the Roman Army. In the aftermath of the siege the Romans would lay siege to the hilltop fortress of Massada and years later would spark the Bar Kochba Rebellion.
The events that led up to the Siege of Jerusalem began in AD 66 when the Roman procurator, Florus imposed heavy taxes on the Jewish people, he also pillaged the Upper Market in Jerusalem, and for no reason at all kills 3,600 Jews. Despite all of this Florus still demanded the annual tribute from the Temple. When the Roman soldiers marched in their annual parade in Jerusalem, the Jews where ordered to salute them, and they did so, but when a man calls for the ousting of Florus the soldiers attacked. Jewish men hiding on the roofs of their houses rain stones down on the soldiers and others engaged them in hand to hand combat, in the end Florus and the soldiers flee to the provincial capital at Caesarea. With the cancellation of the Temple sacrifice to the emperor the Jewish War begins. The Zealots soon march on Jerusalem around the time of the Feast of Sukkot and capture the Roman-built Fort Antonia and the Palace of Herod. During the fighting part of Jerusalem burned, including the debt records. The nearest Roman Army was at Syria at this time and it would take time to arrive in Israel, however Jewish Zealots in Syria kill the entire legion before it crossed into Israel. From AD 67 to AD 69 there is no Roman activity in or near Jerusalem. During this time the Zealots fight a Civil War inside the walls of Jerusalem between Yochanan of Gush-Halav and Simon Bar-Giora, and Jewish assassins called the Sicarii assassinate anyone not loyal to the cause. Finally Rome reacts to the revolt and the Emperor Nero sends his best general, Vespasian to stop the Jews. Vespasian lands in Judea in AD 68 and conquers everything but Jerusalem, when Nero kills himself Vespasian leaves for Rome and puts his son, Titus in charge of the capture of Jerusalem.
In AD 70 Titus marches on Jerusalem with a force of 80,000 men, Titus’ plan is to break through the outer wall and then swoop through the city capture the Temple and Herod’s Palace, and thusly end the siege in one swift stroke. Soon after arrival Titus set up his headquarters at the place known as Gabath-Saul and orders the construction of fortified siege camps with a earthen wall in front of them, but the work is interrupted several times by Jewish raids. Titus decides to post two legions on the Mount of Olives to keep watch on the Jews and to extend the earthen wall all the way around the city. When the earthen wall was competed and the Jewish raids stopped Titus told his soldiers to construct three siege towers, when these where competed Titus filled them with archers and then he ordered the construction of other siege engines. Fifteen days later Titus assaulted Jerusalem’s first outer wall and he eventually broke through Jewish defenses on both sides of the wall. After this Titus set up another siege camp this one at a place known as Bezetha or Camp of the Assyrian, because the Assyrian King Sennacherib laid siege to Jerusalem at the very spot in 701 BC. Titus now attempted to move on with his plan but was stopped by stiff resistance by the forces of the Jewish leaders John and Simon, whose forces rained arrows from the towers of the second wall. While Titus launched attack after attack after attack, a Jew named Castor tried to trick Titus and save Jerusalem, but Titus saw the trick just in time and killed Castor and his men. Titus now launched his next attacked this time he succeeded, after five days of bloody combat. When Titus broke through he launched an attack on the lower city but was repulsed by tough Jewish resistance. Eventually after four days of bloody fighting Titus beat the Jewish defenders in the lower city and then Titus ordered his soldiers to set fire to the whole area as far as the Pool of Siloam. This included the Temple, which was burned on the 9th of Av (on the Jewish calendar) 700 years to the day the first temple was destroyed by the Babylonians. The fires caused much death and destruction throughout the lower city, and the Roman soldiers themselves killed many civilians in the city, impaling some on sharp logs and putting them in the earthen wall outside the city. When Titus was finished with the destruction, he turned towards the upper city, which was defended by a third wall. After about three weeks of siege the third wall was breached by Roman forces, the Zealots immediately formed a new defense line around Herod’s Palace, which was centered between three towers.
When the Romans breached this line the soldiers in the towers fled underground, the upper city soon received the same treatment that the lower suffered. With the fall of Jerusalem the Jewish War seemingly ended and Vespasian with his son Titus where hailed as the heroes of Rome, the treasures stolen from Jerusalem would fund the Roman Empire from then till the fall of Rome in AD 476.
Massada was the Jews last stand against the Romans in the Jewish War. When war erupted in 66 AD some of the Zealot forces sneaked into Massada and overwhelmed the Roman garrison there. When Jerusalem fell Massada became the last bastion of freedom and numerous refugees from all over Israel flooded into the fortress swelling their numbers to 960 men, women, and children. Even though Herod the Great built the fortress of Massada a hundred years before it was still nearly impregnable. In 72 AD the Roman legate of Judea, Flavius Syla, marched on Massada with the 10th Legion, auxiliaries, and 10,000 Jewish slaves. Syla begins the siege by constructing a ring of siege camps and an earthen wall around Massada to prevent escape. During construction the Jews inside the fort began to roll huge boulders down the hill, killing many workers. It soon became obvious to Legate Syla that the Massada garrison was big and well armed and provisioned, and he started to construct siege towers and catapults to cover the advancing troops as they made their way up. Syla began the assault by having the archers fire flaming arrows into the fortress, but the fire caused by the arrow began to blow back towards the Romans, but only momentary, for the fire soon blew back towards Massada. When the flames cleared the Jewish leader inside of Massada, Eleazar Ben Ya’ir knew that the Romans would be coming shortly and he believed that death would be better than life as a Roman slave would. So he decided to spare the women and children first and had the men kill them, then they cast lots to see which of the men would die, until there was only one Jew left and he killed himself, after setting fire to the rest of the fortress. When the Romans entered the Massada they found death and carnage everywhere, Massada had become a symbol of the freedom that the Jews so cherished.
The Bar Kochba revolt was the Jews last great revolt. The events that would lead up to Bar Kochba’s revolt started with the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD. The cinders for another revolt was put down when the Emperor Trajan promised to rebuild the temple, however he had no intention of his keeping his promise. These cinders of rebellion grew hotter when Trajan’s successor, Hadrian came to the ruins of Jerusalem and decided to build a Roman city with a temple to Jupiter on top of the ruins, this city was to be called Aelia Capitolina. Hadrian also made a mean and Jew-hating Roman general, named Tineius Rufus governor, this was the last straw. In 132 AD the highest-ranking Rabbis in Israel, led by Rabbi Akiva met and decided to try to find a man strong enough to lead the planned revolt. Akiva found such a man, his name was Simon Bar Kochba, and Rabbi Akiva then brought Bar Kochba to the High Priest, Joshua ben Chananya to be judged. When ben Chananya said that he was pleased with Bar Kochba, Rabbi Akiva proclaimed Bar Kochba the Messiah and immediately things started to move along faster. Bar Kochba decided that he needed a test to determine who was worthy to serve in the army, at first he decided on that those that could bite off their right finger where worthy, but Rabbi Akiva didn’t like this test. Bar Kochba thought of another test, this on was that a person would have to pull a cedar of Lebanon out of the ground while riding a horse. With his army of 500,000 men ready Bar Kochba begins his revolt by systematically capturing all of Judea and more, Bar Kochba even pushed back two whole Roman legions (the 10th and 22nd). Hadrian was to slow to realize the full effects of revolt and it took him a long time to finally react. Hadrian sent the best general in the Roman Empire, Julius Severus along with the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 10th, and 11th legions to Israel to put down the revolt. When Severus arrived he conducted his conquest of Israel much like Bar Kochba did in the beginning of the war. Unlike in the earlier Jewish War, not much is known about the battles of the Bar Kochba rebellion except the Siege of Betar. For about year the fortress-city of Betar has remained in Jewish hands and many believed that Betar was invincible, the end of the siege began when a Samaritan sneaked into the room where Rabbi Eleazar was praying, the Samaritan pretended to be whispering into the Rabbi’s ear. When Bar Kochba saw this he demanded Rabbi Eleazar tell him what the Samaritan said, when Eleazar didn’t reply Bar Kochba kicked him to death. This was seen as a mistake because Rabbi Eleazar was constantly praying for the fortress to hold. About the same time a traitor (some say it was a Samaritan) showed the Romans a way into the fortress, on the 9th of Av 135 AD (the anniversary of the destruction of the Temple) Betar fell. The resulting massacre and burning was horrendous the Romans showed no mercy, thousands died. As for Bar Kochba, he was found in the desert strangled by a snake. The Emperor Hadrian passed many laws outlawing every aspect of Judaism, in attempt to stop another rebellion from forming. All Rabbis that were found were killed as part of Hadrian’s plans to stop further uprisings. |
User Comments:
| Thanduel
:: August 6 2009 |
| You note that the treasure taken from the temple was used to fund the empire. The most noteable thing that the money from campaign was used to fun was the construction of the colloseum. Allong with the money around 12000 jewish slaves were also taken and these were also used for the construction. |
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