Legionary by Philip Matyszak

Author:Philip Matyszak
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Published: 2013-10-02T16:00:00+00:00

Resistance types and techniques

On the other hand there are Maccabees, those Jewish peoples following the long Jewish tradition of resisting invaders (the Assyrians, Persians and Seleucids had similar problems with the Jews). The Zealots are a faction who take this view one step further and consider armed resistance a duty. The Sicarii are resistance fighters who consider the Zealots weak and wimpish, in that the Zealots do not practise the Sicarii traditions of wholesale assassination, kidnapping and extortion, not only of Romans but of any Jews who are insufficiently enthusiastic about their cause.

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For the Jews deemed it intolerable that foreigners should make their homes in their city and that foreign religious rites should take root there.

CASSIUS DIO HISTORIES 69.12

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Overall, life with a hostile Jewish community tends not to be dull. Those training pila are occasionally called into play for crowd control, but use of even blunted spears, or the throwing of these with particular enthusiasm, leads to a delegation to the governor complaining about ‘excessive force’. Because when they do rebel, the Jews fight like men possessed, the emperors tend to take their sensibilities seriously. One legionary, for example, was executed for insultingly lifting his tunic to expose himself to the Jewish people, and of all the subjects of the emperor only the Jews are not required to sacrifice to him. In fact, troops used to have to tuck away all insignia bearing the imperial image if entering Jerusalem, or even sometimes diplomatically enter the city by night.

Roman patience does have its limits. Any violence to Roman supply trains can lead to the people of the nearest village or town being evacuated, possibly sold into slavery, and the buildings flattened. A husband of a Jewish woman kidnapped by bandits/terrorists/religious guerrillas is required by rabbinic law to pay the ransom. If the same woman is unfortunate enough to fall into the hands of the Roman authorities, the husband is not so required. The bandits will respect the woman’s chastity – the Romans very probably will not.

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