peal for calm. Nonetheless, their efforts ultimately failed, and they were ex-
pelled from the city (J.W.2.309-14, 334-35, 343-406). In May/June of 66c.e.,
some of the young priests, incited and led by the captain of the Temple,
Eleazer ben Ananias, terminated the sacrifices offered daily at the Temple
on behalf of the emperor. In essence, this served as an open proclamation
of revolution and war.
Fighting broke out between various factions over both control of the
city and the resumption of the daily sacrifices. This internecine fighting
became even more violent whensicariiled by a certain Menahem ben Ju-
dah entered the city and joined with Eleazer. Eleazer’s father and uncle,
who were the leaders of the faction trying to avoid war with Rome, were
murdered by Menahem and his men, and the soldiers sent into the city by
Agrippa II to restore order either joined the rebels or were driven out of
the city. A small contingent of Roman auxiliaries, who found themselves
trapped inside the city, tried to escape, but were killed by Eleazer’s men.
The rebellion thus quickly became unavoidable and irrevocable.
Given this situation, Jews from all over Judea took the opportunity to
rise up against their non-Jewish neighbors and vice versa. Seeing that the
situation had gotten out of control, the governor of Syria, Cestius Gallus,
collected a large army including the Twelfth Legion and some auxiliaries
supplied by Agrippa and began marching south to Judea. Gallus reached
Ptolemais in September and secured Galilee with little opposition. How-
ever, in October, his forces met Jewish rebels, who plundered his baggage
train before he had even reached Jerusalem. Nevertheless, Gallus marched
his army to Jerusalem and seized the northern suburbs, especially the dis-
trict of Bezetha, with little difficulty. Despite this success, Gallus quickly
determined that he could not take the city that year, so he ordered a retreat
to the coast, but this withdrawal was completely disorderly, and the Jewish
army took the opportunity to inflict heavy casualties on the retreating Ro-
man forces.
At this point, the Jewish rebels now began to organize themselves as a
revolutionary government. Joseph ben Gurion and Ananus ben Ananus
became joint leaders of the provisional government, and they appointed
generals to conduct the war. Josephus himself was selected to be the gen-
eral of the forces in Galilee. In Rome, Nero dispatched Titus Flavius
Vespasianus, who had distinguished himself in the invasion of Britain dur-
ing the reign of Claudius. By June of 67c.e., Vespasian reached Galilee
with his army, which had secured the region through brutal tactics.
Josephus, who lacked proper troops and armaments, was reduced to pro-57Jewish History from Alexander to HadrianEERDMANS -- Early Judaism (Collins and Harlow) final text
Tuesday, October 09, 2012 12:03:52 PM