Jotapata

Jotapata was a city in Galilee, identified with Tell Jafat, north of Sepphoris, Israel.

Siege of Jotapata

Jotapata played a major role in the First Jewish-Roman War (AD 66-73). The city housed Josephus army, and was widely fortified. When the Roman army, led by Vespasian, arrived, it camped on the northern side, the only access to the citadel. Vespasian had three legions — Legio V Macedonica, X Fretensis, and XV Apollinaris — and supporting troops, for a total of about 60,000 men. After an unsuccessful direct attack, Vespasian ordered to lay a siege.

The siege lasted 47 days, with a strong resistance on Jews' side (Vespasian himself was wounded), but in the end the fortress fell by treachery. Many of the Jew fighters committed suicide, the others (apart Josephus) were killed. An estimated number of 40,000 were killed, while 1,000 women and children were sold as slaves.

After the conquest, Jotapata was destroyed.

Sources

Josephus, The Wars of the Jews, .

Reference

[JewishEncyclopedia.com]

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.