been sidelined by Ananus’s government. With Ananus now dead, Simon
entered the fray, again capturing Hebron in the spring of 69 and then
camping outside of Jerusalem. With the help of the Idumeans, who had
become disenchanted with the Zealots and John, Simon was able to seize
control of all of Jerusalem except the Temple itself. John eventually split
from the Zealots and occupied the outer precincts of the Temple, while the
Zealots holed up in the inner Temple. This tripartite division of the city
lasted until Vespasian’s son Titus and his army arrived before the walls of
Jerusalem in March of 70 and began to besiege the city. With the arrival of
the Roman army, the three factions set aside their differences and began
coordinating their defenses.
Titus could have tried to starve the city into submission, but the new
Flavian regime needed a magnificent victory, and so he determined to take
the city by force. By May of 70, the Romans had captured the third wall. The
Antonia fortress fell in June, and by August the Romans had captured and
burned the Temple itself. As autumn began, the Roman army focused its at-
tention on crushing any pockets of resistance that remained in the Upper
City. It then turned its attention to the handful of Herodian fortresses occu-
pied by the Jewish resistance. The most famous of these, Masada, was not
taken until 73/74, after its defenders committed mass suicide.
Judea was placed under the control of a praetorian legate, and a legion
was permanently stationed in Jerusalem. Vespasian also established a vet-
eran colony at Emmaus to keep the peace (J.W.7.217). The Temple was not
rebuilt, and its plundered riches were transported to Rome, where they
played a central role in the Flavian triumph. Simon Bar Gioras, who had
been captured in the siege, was also taken to Rome, forced to march in the
triumph, and then ritually executed (J.W.7.153-55). The Jewish political
state ceased to exist. With the loss of the Temple, the people of Judea were
forced to survive in radically different circumstances.The Jewish Diaspora from Pompey to 70c.e.
The late Hellenistic and early Roman periods saw a tremendous expansion
of the Jewish Diaspora. By the first centuryc.e., large and prosperous Jew-
ish communities existed all over the Mediterranean from Syrian Antioch
to Asia Minor and from Greece to Alexandria in Egypt (see map 13). There
was some settlement in Italy and in Rome, but there is no evidence for Jews
in the western Mediterranean until the late Roman period. Although there59Jewish History from Alexander to HadrianEERDMANS -- Early Judaism (Collins and Harlow) final text
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