The Jewish Revolts Against Rome, Ad 66-135
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The Jewish Revolts Against Rome, A.D. 66–135 This page intentionally left blank The Jewish Revolts Against Rome, A.D. 66–135 A Military Analysis JAMES J. BLOOM McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Jefferson, North Carolina, and London LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Bloom, James J., 1939– The Jewish revolts against Rome, A.D.66–135: a military analysis / James J. Bloom p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7864-4479-3 softcover : 50# alkaline paper 1. Jews—History, Military. 2. Rome—History, Military. 3. Jews—History—Rebellion, 66–73. 4. Jews—History—Bar Kokhba Rebellion, 132–135. 5. Josephus, Flavius. I. Title. DS111.6.B56 2010 933'.05—dc22 2010013727 British Library cataloguing data are available ©2010 James J. Bloom. All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Front cover: Marble relief of Roman Emperor Titus Flavius Vespasianus, AD 9-79, Sevilla, Spain (Art Archive/Gianni Dagli Orti); background ©20¡0 Shutterstock Manufactured in the United States of America McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640 www.mcfarlandpub.com For Jake, Zach, Zoey, Charlie and Sammy, with the hope they will eventually read their grandpop’s efforts. This page intentionally left blank Contents Preface and Introduction 1 I. THE FIRST REVOLT, A.D. 66–74 1. The First Revolt: Causation and Inevitability 16 2. Foundation for the Roman Involvement in Judaean Affairs 23 3. Herod the Great: Judaea Becomes a Roman Client State 35 4. Adding Insult to Injury: Roman Misrule and Escalating Disturbances in Judaea 47 5. Opening of the First Revolt 65 6. Jewish War Preparations, Preliminary Skirmishes 80 7. Josephus Assumes Command in Galilee: His Unstable Tenure and Challenges to His Authority 92 8. Vespasian Versus Josephus 114 9. The Naval/Amphibious War 129 10. Mopping Up in Galilee as Discord in the Jewish Camp Boils Over 135 11. Suspension of the Roman Campaign; Romans Lay Foundation for the Reduction of Jerusalem 148 12. Death Throes: The Final Phases 156 13. Aftermath of the First Revolt 174 vii viii Contents II. THE SECOND AND THIRD REVOLTS 14. Interwar State of Affairs, A.D.73–115 179 15. Kitos (Quietus) War or Tumultu Iudaico (The Tumult of the Jews) 191 16. Bar-Kokhba Revolt 201 17. Subsequent Rebellions and Conclusions 217 APPENDICES Appendix A. Josephus’s Reliability as a Source for the Military History of the First Jewish Revolt 221 Appendix B. Disposition of Roman and Allied Forces, A.D. 66–73 227 Appendix C. Jewish Combat Effectiveness in the First Revolt 230 Appendix D. Factions, Parties and Patron Allegiance in the First Jewish War: John of Gischala Versus Flavius Josephus 233 Appendix E. The Jewish Rebels—Zealots, Bandits, Sicarii, and Others: Organization, Motivation, Unit Strengths 238 Appendix F. Josephus’s Presumptive Life Story 241 Appendix G. Estimating Numbers in the First Jewish Revolt 246 Appendix H. Epic Stuff: Some Treatments of the First Revolt in Novels, Theater and Motion Pictures 250 Appendix I. Judaea Invicta—The Revolt That Might Have Been: A Reflection on the Elements for an Alternative Outcome 259 Critical Bibliography 267 Complete Bibliography 273 Index 279 Preface and Introduction Preface “Peace was his real goal. He knew that Roman power was irresistible, but, when driven to provide for a state of war, he tried to ensure that, if they would not come to terms, the Jews should at least give a good account of themselves.” Flavius Josephus, The Jewish War 4.320 (circa 75 C.E.), writing about Ananus, the leader of the middle-of-the-road transitional Judaean war council of Jerusalem, 66 A.D. In the ninth year of the Christian era, the Teutonic warrior Arminius inflicted an appalling defeat on Roman legions guarding the empire’s Rhine frontier. While this was an astonishing blow to Roman self-confidence, it palls in comparison to the setbacks endured in quashing the three rebellions of the empire’s Jews in the first and second centuries A.D. The fight in the Teutoberger Wald has received a good deal of attention from military histo- rians devoted to Roman imperial themes. The Jewish revolts, regrettably for those interested in ancient warfare, have been primarily tackled by historians exclusively involved with the religious implications—the birth pangs of Chris- tianity, the death throes of Temple-based Judaism. It seems that this 70-year struggle is consigned to a backwater in the military history of the Roman Empire. This should not be so. Rome’s hard-fought, brutal subjugation of the three Jewish revolts in the first and second centuries A.D. comprises an unaccountably blank chapter in the literature on early imperial Roman combat operations. This study should help redress that omission. My goal is to provide readers with a methodical review of the background, organized combat forces and armed bands, per- sonalities, and military campaigns of the Jewish rebellions which, over the 1 2 Preface and Introduction course of two centuries, led to the destruction of the Second Temple, the loss of Jewish political control of (though not tenancy in) the Holy Land and their affects upon the Jewish Diaspora. I have intended the treatment to be critical and analytic. While I have steered clear of superficial present-day analogies, where parallels appear apt and could improve the analysis, they are briefly pointed out. In fact, the final chapter of the text deals with the contemporary debate in Israel of the 1980s about policy implications of the “modern memory” of the Bar Kochba revolt. Likewise, whereas the period involved encompasses the establishment of Christianity, I have not entered into the arguments concerning the nature of Jesus, his ministry, his followers and the historicity of the events and people described in the Gospels. However, readers should know that I understand the Christians as comprising merely one of several Jewish splinter groups active during the era—one which apparently took little or no part in the violent resistance. This group distanced itself from the messianic intoxica- tion of the Jewish rebels. After all, the Christiani had already found their Messiah, and, as a man of peace, Jesus (Yeshua ben Youssef) advocated sub- mission to Rome on all but spiritual matters. Furthermore, Christianity was not developed as a completely separate religion from Judaism, with its assorted competing factions, until after the dust from the Bar Kochba rebellion had settled. Regarding the First Revolt, Flavius Josephus’s uniquely detailed descrip- tions of Roman deployments, tactics, marching order, camp layouts, admin- istrative procedures, weapons and uniform are often cited but seldom placed in their proper context. After all, the whole point of Josephus’s discussion of the Legions was to help him explain to his readers exactly how the Romans quelled a ferocious Jewish revolt in Palestine—and why the rebellion was, to him, an act of folly. In view of Josephus’s full account, that episode comprises an unaccountable caesura in the history of warfare. His tale must be taken with a heavy dose of salt, but isn’t this true of most ancient historians? Unfor- tunately, there was no Josephus to record the events of the two follow-on rebellions in the ensuing century. However, his descriptions are valuable in framing the subsequent violent outbreaks. The “middle revolt,” the so-called Quietus Revolt of A.D. 115–117—a region-wide conflagration—is hardly ever analyzed, most likely because of the scarcity and the patchy nature of the sources. The present work is an effort to overcome that deficit in scholarship. Unlike the treatment of the First Revolt, I do not take a strict chronological approach with this rebellion. This is so simply because few can agree on the order of events. I discuss features of this “Diaspora rebellion” in a thematic manner. This is due to the noted defects of source material and their mutually contradictory nature—unlike Preface and Introduction 3 the solitary and comprehensive source for A.D. 66–74. Likewise the inten- sively prepared and fought Bar Kochba rebellion of A.D. 133–135 is seldom discussed as a military (as opposed to a religious) affair, again due to the lack of material apart from parables and anecdotes buried amidst the ahistorical, mind-numbingly legalistic and liturgical rabbinical literature and a few scraps of Roman and Christian commentary, several of which are second- or third- hand redactions prepared many years after the events. This book is probably the first attempt to evaluate these two uprisings as military conflicts in com- bination with the better known First Revolt. This study represents a complete revision and major expansion of my earlier more restricted book that concentrated on the First Revolt, The Roman- Judaeo War, 66–74 A.D.: A Military Analysis (Syracuse, N.Y.: Saga Publica- tions, 2002). Saga was primarily a channel for people who play war games by manipulating miniature soldiers on a simulated battlefield; hence the book was to some extent pitched at that readership, including some minutiae of rules, game-play and set-up. The present work seeks to provide a broader view of the events which might attract readers curious about the military history of Rome or the Jews and is essentially a new work. A word is appropriate here about how and why I became involved with this topic and why my treatment should interest a wide readership. I should divulge my qualifications as well. My bread and butter occupation was in charity, healthcare and higher education tax law consulting, from which career I have been retired since 1998.