Siege of Jerusalem (70 CE)
| Siege of Jerusalem | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the First Jewish-Roman War | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Roman Empire | Jews of Judea | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Titus Flavius Vespasianus |
Simon Bar-Giora Yohanan mi-Gush Halav (John of Gischala) Eleazar ben Simon | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| 70,000 men | 13,000 men, split among three factions | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| Unknown | 60,000 - 1,100,000 (mass civilian casualties) | ||||||||
The siege of Jerusalem in the year 70 was a conclusive event in the first Jewish-Roman War.
Despite early successes in repelling the Roman sieges, the Zealots fought among themselves, lacking proper leadership, discipline, training, and preparation for the battles that were to follow.
Titus surrounded the city, with three legions (Legio V Macedonica, Legio XII Fulminata, Legio XV Apollinaris) on the western side, and a fourth (Legio X Fretensis) on the Mount of Olives to the east. He put pressure on the food & 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 failed, and another sally was launched.
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. A new wall was ordered to be built, to put an end to the success of these foragers, 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. 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. 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. The city was completely under Roman control by the 7th of September.
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 Tacitus' (56 BCE–120) earlier account, 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 then-thousand-year-old Temple be spared. According to Josephus, the Romans soldiers grew furious with Jewish attacks and tactics, and against Titus' orders, set fire to an apartment adjacent to the Temple, which soon spread althroughout.
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 AD 70, in particular the Destruction of Jerusalem; are the fulfillment of Jesus' predictions approximately 40 years before the event took place. The 'Olivet Discourse' prediction is found in Luke xxi, Matthew xxiv, and also the "little Apocalypse" of Mark xiii. 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 AD 70.
Christians also believe that the events surrounding AD 70 are the fulfillment of various prophecies in the Old Testament. For example the (Book of 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 schism between Christianity and Judaism, which came about sixty years later, in the course of the Bar Kokhba's revolt (132-135).
See also
- Jewish-Roman wars
- Assyrian Siege of Jerusalem
- Solomon's Temple
- Babylonian captivity
- Second Temple
- Herod's Temple
- Western Wall
- Jesus on the destruction of Jerusalem