Conquering Jerusalem: The AD 66–73 Roman Campaign to Crush the Jewish Revolt by Stephen Dando-Collins

Author:Stephen Dando-Collins
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
Published: 2021-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

XII

NERO’S FATE CHANGES EVERYTHING

In Greece that September, the emperor Nero had received the news of Vespasian’s summer successes in Galilee with impatience. Earlier in AD 67 he had competed at the Olympic Games at Olympia, where he had won all the musical events and been awarded victory in the ten-horse chariot event—even though he had fallen out of his chariot and failed to finish. He had subsequently victoriously competed at the Isthmian Games at Corinth in April–May, then the Pythian Games at Delphi in August, where he had also visited the Oracle of Delphi, going to the head of the line of supplicants for a prediction, the nature of which was never revealed. Then it was back to Corinth to turn the first sods of his planned Isthmian Canal project, for which Vespasian sent him the six thousand Jewish slave laborers from Taricheae.

With the Roman conquest of Jerusalem clearly still a long way off, Nero had unhappily canceled his planned Ethiopian operation to the south and looked east. Deciding that he would instead focus on the Caspian Gates offensive once Vespasian wrapped up the annoying Jewish problem, he expected Vespasian to have the Judean counteroffensive completed as soon as possible so that all resources could be focused on the Caspian Gates in the new year.

In December, Nero’s freedman Helius arrived in Greece from Rome to personally beg the emperor to return to the capital so he could be seen to deal with the problems simmering in the empire’s western provinces. With the offensive against the Jewish rebels on hold for the winter, Nero unhappily acceded to Helius’s requests and announced that he was going home. Sailing back to the west coast of Italy from Greece, by early January he had entered Neapolis (Naples), then Antium (Anzio), then Alba Longa in the Alban Hills outside Rome, finally entering Rome itself, always in triumphal processions as he returned home as victor at the Greek games. He had originally intended that these celebrations would combine his military, athletic, and artistic achievements, but as the ongoing Jewish War had robbed him of his planned Ethiopian and Caspian Gates military victories, the Triumphs were for his achievements in Greece alone.

For the Rome procession of his Triumph, part of the city wall was torn down to allow him a broader entry—the usual gate used by triumphants, the Porta Triumphalis, which was kept locked except when used for Triumphs, was quite narrow. For his Triumph, Nero rode through the streets of Rome in the golden chariot that Augustus had first used for his triumphal processions and had last been used by Germanicus and his brother Claudius in their Triumphs, in celebration of military victories. The rest of the time the chariot was reverently kept in the Temple of Capitoline Jupiter.

As he drove through the city, along streets lined with the cheering population, the beaming Nero wore a purple robe covered with gold spangles, and a crown of wild olive, the symbol of peace. In one hand he held up his laurel crown from the Pythian Games.

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