The Jewish Revolt AD 66-74 by Si Sheppard

The Jewish Revolt AD 66-74 by Si Sheppard

Author:Si Sheppard
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: The Jewish Revolt AD 66–74
ISBN: 9781780961859
Publisher: Osprey Publishing


THE YEAR OF THE FOUR EMPERORS

As the campaign season of AD 68 opened the Romans, observing affairs in Jerusalem with a wry detachment, were in no hurry to intervene. ‘God is a much better general than I am,’ Vespasian informed his men, ‘and, by the way he is handing over the Jews to the Romans without any effort on our part, he is giving our army a bloodless victory. Since our enemies are busy dying by their own hands,’ he concluded, the best option in the circumstances ‘is to stay as spectators instead of taking on fanatics who welcome death and are already busy murdering each other.’

A peripheral strategy was appropriate, and the first objective was the rugged, mountainous province of Perea east of Galilee. Crossing the Jordan, the Romans advanced on Perea’s capital, Gadara, where the populace expelled their Zealot garrison and surrendered the city. Vespasian sent Placidus with a force of 3,000 infantry and 500 horse in pursuit of the fleeing Zealots, who took refuge in a large fortified village called Bethennabris. Most of the rebels were slaughtered on open ground during a sortie, the rest after the Romans stormed the village that evening.

Terrified, the region’s entire population fled towards Jericho, but their escape was thwarted by the Jordan River, swollen by rain and no longer fordable. Placidus descended on the fugitives pinned against the riverbank, massacring 15,000 while ‘an incalculable number’ threw themselves into the Jordan and drowned. In addition to whatever captives they allowed to live, the Romans seized countless donkeys, sheep, oxen, camels and other worldly goods. Exploiting the general terror, Placidus quickly moved to pacify all of Perea. In short order the only toehold remaining to the Jews east of the Dead Sea was the fortress of Machaerus.



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