The Jewish Revolt Begins
The Jewish Revolt Begins
What started as protests and demonstrations in the spring and summer of AD 66 quickly spiraled into armed rebellion. Jewish rebels attacked the Roman garrison in Jerusalem and overwhelmed it. Then Eleazar ben Hanania, the captain of the Temple guard, made a move that crossed the point of no return: he convinced the priests to stop offering the daily sacrifice for the Roman emperor. That sacrifice had been a symbol of Jewish submission to Rome. Stopping it was a declaration of war.
The Jews themselves were deeply divided about whether this war was a good idea.
The Sadducees—the wealthy priestly aristocracy who controlled the Temple—generally wanted to make peace with Rome. They could do the math. Rome had the largest, most professional army in the world. Rebellion was suicide. The Pharisees, the influential teachers of the law, were split down the middle. Some supported resistance; others counseled caution. The Zealots, a militant nationalist faction, were all in for war. And then there were the Sicarii, even more extreme than the Zealots, who combined nationalist fervor with social revolution. They targeted wealthy Jews as enthusiastically as they targeted Romans.
These divisions would prove nearly as deadly as the Roman legions.
At first, though, the rebellion seemed to be working. In the fall of AD 66, when the Syrian legate Cestius Gallus tried to retake Jerusalem with his forces, the Jewish rebels actually defeated him. They captured significant military equipment and sent the Romans running. It was an intoxicating victory—proof, the rebels thought, that God was on their side, that they could actually beat Rome.
But that victory sealed their doom. Rome doesn't lose battles and shrug it off. Rome responds with overwhelming force.
Emperor Nero appointed Vespasian to crush the rebellion. Vespasian was no political appointee or court favorite—he was a professional soldier, experienced and ruthless. He arrived in early AD 67 with three full legions plus auxiliary forces, about 60,000 men total. And his strategy was methodical and devastating. Instead of marching straight to Jerusalem, he systematically conquered Galilee and the surrounding regions, cutting off Jerusalem from any hope of support, demonstrating Roman military superiority, and sending a clear message: resistance is futile.
The Galilean campaign was brutal. The Jewish commander there was a man named Josephus ben Matthias—yes, the same Josephus who would later write the history we're relying on. After a brief resistance at the fortress of Jotapata, Josephus surrendered to the Romans. Many Jews considered him a traitor, but his surrender preserved his life and gave us the detailed account of what happened next. As Galilee fell, thousands of refugees fled to Jerusalem, straining the city's resources and intensifying the factional conflicts already tearing it apart from within.