Siege of Jerusalem (70)

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Jewish-Roman wars
First Jewish-Roman War - Kitos War - Bar Kokhba's revolt

The Siege of Jerusalem in the year 70 CE was a decisive event in the First Jewish-Roman War, followed by the fall of Masada in 73. The Roman army, led by later Emperor Titus, sieged and conquered the city of Jerusalem, which had been occupied by Jewish rebels in 66.

Contents

1 The siege
2 Destruction of Jerusalem
3 Fulfillment of Christian prophecy
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

The siege

Despite early successes in repelling the Roman sieges, the Zealots fought amongst themselves, lacking proper leadership, discipline, training, and preparation for the battles that were to follow.

Titus surrounded the city, with three legions (V Macedonica, XII Fulminata, XV Apollinaris) on the western side and a fourth (X Fretensis) on the Mount of Olives to the east. He put pressure on the food and water supplies of the inhabitants by allowing pilgrims to enter the city to celebrate Passover, and then refusing them egress. After Jewish sallies killed a number of Roman soldiers, Titus sent Flavius Josephus, a former Jewish commander now loyal to Rome, to negotiate with the defenders; this ended with Jews wounding the negotiator with an arrow, and another sally was launched shortly after. Titus was almost captured during this sudden attack, but escaped.

In mid-May Titus set to destroying the newly built Third Wall with a ram, breaching it as well as the Second Wall, and turning their attention to the Fortress of Antonia just north of the Temple Mount. The Romans were then drawn into street fighting with the Zealots and sustained heavy enough losses that they were ordered to retreat. Josephus failed in another attempt at negotiations, and Jewish attacks prevented the construction of siege towers at the Fortress of Antonia. Food, water, and other provisions were dwindling, but small foraging parties managed to sneak supplies into the city, harrying Roman forces in the process. To put an end to the success of these foragers, orders were issued to build a new wall, and siege tower construction was restarted as well.

After several failed attempts to breach or scale the walls of the Fortress, the Romans finally launched a secret attack, overwhelming sleeping Zealot guards and taking the Fortress. This was the second highest ground in the city, after the Temple Mount, and provided a perfect point from which to attack the Temple itself. Battering rams made little progress, but the fighting itself eventually set the walls on fire, when a Roman soldier threw a burning stick onto one of the Temple's walls. Destroying the Temple was not among Titus' goals, possibly due in large part to the massive expansions done by Herod the Great mere decades earlier. Most likely, Titus had wanted to seize it and transform it into a pagan temple, dedicated to the Roman Emperor and to the Roman pantheon. But the flames spread quite quickly and were soon unquenchable. Even if the flames were managable, the Roman soldiers wanted vengeance. The Temple was destroyed on Tisha B'Av, at the end of August, and as the flames spread into the residential sections of the city, along with the Roman legions, Jewish resistance crumbled quickly. Most of the remaining Jews escaped through hidden underground tunnels. Some Jews made a final stand in the Upper City. This defence halted the Roman advance as they had to construct siege towers just to assail the remaining Jews. The city was completely under Roman control by the September 7 and most of the remaining Jews that had fled Jerusalem, were hunted down and massacred.

The destruction of the Temple is still mourned annually as the Jewish fast Tisha B'Av, and the Arch of Titus, depicting and celebrating the sack of Jerusalem and the Temple, still stands in Rome.

Destruction of Jerusalem

Sulpicius Severus (363–420), referring in his Chronica to an earlier writing by Tacitus (56–117), claimed that Titus favored destroying the Jerusalem Temple to help uproot and demolish both the Jewish and Christian sects. The account of Josephus, generally considered unreliable in this case, described Titus as "moderate" in his approach and, after conferring with others, ordering that the then-thousand-year-old Temple be spared. According to Josephus, the Roman soldiers grew furious with Jewish attacks and tactics and, against Titus' orders, set fire to an apartment adjacent to the Temple, which soon spread all throughout.

Josephus had acted as a mediator for the Romans and, when negotiations failed, witnessed the siege and aftermath. He wrote:

Now as soon as the army had no more people to slay or to plunder, because there remained none to be the objects of their fury (for they would not have spared any, had there remained any other work to be done), [Titus] Caesar gave orders that they should now demolish the entire city and Temple, but should leave as many of the towers standing as were of the greatest eminence; that is, Phasaelus, and Hippicus, and Mariamne; and so much of the wall as enclosed the city on the west side. This wall was spared, in order to afford a camp for such as were to lie in garrison [in the Upper City], as were the towers [the three forts] also spared, in order to demonstrate to posterity what kind of city it was, and how well fortified, which the Roman valor had subdued; but for all the rest of the wall [surrounding Jerusalem], it was so thoroughly laid even with the ground by those that dug it up to the foundation, that there was left nothing to make those that came thither believe it [Jerusalem] had ever been inhabited. This was the end which Jerusalem came to by the madness of those that were for innovations; a city otherwise of great magnificence, and of mighty fame among all mankind.

And truly, the very view itself was a melancholy thing; for those places which were adorned with trees and pleasant gardens, were now become desolate country every way, and its trees were all cut down. Nor could any foreigner that had formerly seen Judaea and the most beautiful suburbs of the city, and now saw it as a desert, but lament and mourn sadly at so great a change. For the war had laid all signs of beauty quite waste. Nor had anyone who had known the place before, had come on a sudden to it now, would he have known it again. But though he [a foreigner] were at the city itself, yet would he have inquired for it.

Fulfillment of Christian prophecy

Many Christians believe that the events surrounding 70, in particular the Destruction of Jerusalem, are the fulfillment of Jesus' alleged prophecy, cast approximately 40 years before the event took place. The Olivet Discourse prophecy is found in [Luke 21], [Matthew 24], and also the "little Apocalypse" of Mark 13. Eusebius records in The History of the Church that the Christians who lived in Jerusalem at the time fled during the withdrawal of Cestius Gallus four years before the calamity took place.

In opposition to this, secular biblical scholars date the writings of the New Testament after the destruction of the Temple, claiming that they were written with the advantage of hindsight to the events surrounding 70.

Christians also believe that the events surrounding 70 are the fulfillment of various prophecies in the Old Testament. For example, Isaiah 10:3 talks about a "day of visitation", when "desolation comes from far"; and the prophet Daniel foresaw a day when "the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary (Dan 9:26). Some believe that the Jews were punished for not recognizing the "day of visitation" espoused by Jesus, since they rejected him as their Messiah.

Messianic claims did shape the ultimate [[Schisms among the Jews#Break-offs: Samaritans and Christians|schism between Judaism and Christianity]], which came about sixty years later in the course of the Bar Kokhba's revolt (132–135).

References

Nigel Cawthorne, History's Greatest Battles: Masterstrokes of War, p 31-37 ISBN 1841932906.

External links

[Resources > Second Temple and Talmudic Era] The Jewish History Resource Center - Project of the Dinur Center for Research in Jewish History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
[The Temple Mount and Fort Antonia]
[Map of the siege of Jerusalem]