The Redemption of Zion: a TL of the Great Revolt

Hello!

Here is my interpretation of how the Great Jewish Revolt could have gone differently, and the resulting ramifications that change history.

This is both my first Timeline and my first post here, but don’t worry, I’ve been lurking for a long time.

I’ll post every day except Saturdays till I run out of the considerable backlog that I have accumulated over the summer.

I would really appreciate feedback, especially that nitpicky sort that stems from exhaustive knowledge, because this timeline is the ‘official history' of a novel that I am writing for my Honors Humanities Keystone project. (My advisor enthusiastically supported me posting on this site.) As a result, it’s starting from the beginning of the war, and has a lot of plain old OTL in the beginning. Hopefully, it’ll still be an enjoyable read.

My sources are:
Apocalypse: The Great Jewish Revolt Against Rome AD 66-73 by Neil Faulkner
The Rise and Fall of the Judean State by Solomon Zeitlin
The Jewish Revolts Against Rome, A.D. 66-135- A Military Analysis by James J. Bloom
The Ruling Class of Judea, by Martin Goodman
Jerusalem Under Siege by Jonathan J. Price
Josephus Homepage by Gary Goldberg
JPS Hebrew-English Tanakh
And of course: The Jewish War, by Flavius Josephus.

Without further ado, the preamble:
 
This is a Stiff-necked People
Late May, AD 66

After more than a century of Roman domination, Judea remained a defiantly quarrelsome land. The people, wedded to their unique religion, scarcely assimilated into the wider Mediterranean culture, preferring to remain insolent outsiders. They were more concerned with the minutiae of the divine commandments that regulated all aspects of their ritual and everyday lives than with the usual toadying up of subject peoples to overlords. Even more concerning for pensive Roman administrators was the persistent nationalistic longing for independence stemming from their unique cult. Every reasonable conciliation had been granted. Jewish priests offered sacrifices for the Emperor and not to him, all Roman legionary insignias with graven images had been banned from Jerusalem, and the coins struck for the Jews were also pleasantly bare of graven images.

These concessions only prevented outright rebellion. They did not endear the Romans to the Judean populace. Unique demographic pressures in Judea stemming from the refusal to practice infanticide, the biblical mandate to multiply, and the otherwise unheard of practice of charity had caused the population of Judea to reach an all-time high. The average Jew had gone from a small farmer owning their own plot, to a tenant worker in a plantation owned by a wealthy Hellenized peer. Jerusalem had to manufacture thousands of jobs for newly idle workers who had just finished Herod’s renovation of the Holy Temple. They suffered under the double burden of the Temple tithe and Roman taxation.

Some Jews took to the hills to become bandits, living on the remote corner of society. Others became austere monks, seeking purity in isolated desert communities. Some radicalized, forming terrorist cells aimed at kidnaping and killing moderates and Romans. However, the bulk of the populace simply followed the Torah, and hoped for a brighter future. To these Jews, folk religion appealed as an equalizer, as the fount for the renewal of the ancient Davidic kingship or the Maccabean rebellion.

This fundamentalist vein in the population caused massive rioting every time the Roman authority’s inadvertently or deliberately broke Jewish law. Nobody had forgotten Pompey’s curious peek into the Holy of Holies when he had taken Jerusalem. Outright rebellion had occurred when Varus, he of Tuetonberg forest fame, conducted a census when Judea first became a Roman province. War threatened once more when mad Caligula dared to send a statue of himself to be erected in the Temple, and was only called off when Caligula managed to get himself assassinated. Even minor disturbances almost caused all-out war. A Roman legionnaire on the Temple wall mooned the assembled pilgrims during Passover, and was stoned to death.

The procurators of Judea furthered estranged the population by being greedy and corrupt, in addition to irreverent. Judea being too small to send a senatorial governor, was sent members of the Roman equestrian class, because it was justifiably thought that the blue-blooded senators would make a mess of the byzantine governing machinery left by Herod. The prefect, thus had no birthright of easy authority, and had to bully the unwilling populace into obeying his orders. He also was quite greedy, aiming to pilfer as much money as he could get his hands on before hopefully being promoted. Most simply disappear from all records after their inglorious gig.

None of these factors individually guaranteed revolt. However, the culmination of circumstances made some violent confrontation that would ratchet down the tension, one way or the other appear inevitable. After much goading on the part of the Romans and self-righteous fury from the Judeans, a minor mockery of Jewish law in the small town of Caesarea was the tinder for the engulfing conflagration of Rebellion.
 
Interesting.

I will be looking forward this TL.

Thanks! I'd love to hear any feedback!

Let us Deal Shrewdly with Them

Caesarea had been built by Herod the Great, a half Jewish client king, to serve as the preeminent port for Judea. It was not naturally a good port, requiring the construction of massive moles to create an outstanding harbor. Herod had designed the city to be a typically Hellenistic site with the usual racetrack, amphitheater, temples, and had even named it after his patron Augustus Caesar.

The city bloomed nicely, except for the blood feud between the Jewish and Gentile inhabitants, both of which claimed to deserve majority representation in the city council. The Jews argued that they paid the most taxes, and that the city had been founded by a Jew, an argument that was quickly refuted by the gentiles who pointed toward the obvious Hellenistic plan. Both sides sent envoys to Rome, where Nero ruled in favor of the Greeks. Hoping to reverse the verdict the Jews appealed to Florus the procurator, who once again ruled that the Greeks had the right of the case. The now victorious Greeks blocked the main Synagogue of Caesarea from acquiring an adjacent property, and on a Friday in May of 66, they built into an alleyway adjacent to the synagogue, restricting entrance to worshippers. The Jews attempted to bribe Florus to stop the work, but he merely pocketed the money.

Tensions newly raised, on the next day, Shabbat, as Jews gathered to pray, some Caesarean youths performed a mock sacrifice of a bird on an upside down chamber pot. This upset the Jewish worshippers who understood that it referred to the following biblical passage
“The Lord spoke to Moses saying:
This shall be the ritual for a leper at the time that he is to be cleansed…The priest shall order one of the birds slaughtered over fresh water in an earthen vessel.”
Gratingly, the blasphemous sacrifice used that biblical passage to insinuate a common slur that the Jews had been thrown out of Egypt as lepers. The Greeks taunts would not go unanswered. Jewish partisans poured out of the synagogue, ready to fight.

This small incident soon ballooned out of control as brawling between rival gangs spread across the city. A Roman cavalry officer took away the offending chamber pot, but that didn’t quell the strife. The Jewish elders of Caesarea fled the city, taking the Torah scrolls with them. Florus had the gall to arrest them for taking the Torah scrolls out of the city, and ignore the reminders of the generous bribe he had received.

Naturally, when Jews in Jerusalem heard of the conflict, they were outraged. But rather than attempt to calm the riled up populace, Florus removed more money from the sacred treasury of the Temple. This move was incredibly imprudent, for though the money may have actually been owed back taxes, Florus’ boneheaded move only redoubled the uproar. Some Jews went around pretending to be beggars collecting alms for the poor, starving procurator. Florus did not appreciate this humiliation, and he used troops to disperse the crowds, before holding a public tribunal demanding the perpetrators executed. The Jewish elite could only shrug, explaining to Florus the inevitably of ruffians in a crowd so large. It would be foolish to punish the innocent majority for the sins of a guilty few, they explained.

mapOfJerusalem66.gif


This only enraged Florus more. In the first military encounter of the war, Florus ordered the Upper-Market place of Jerusalem sacked. Thousands were killed, including infants and even a few men with Roman citizenship. Queen Berenice, sister to the Jewish king, was performing a Naziritic vow in Jerusalem as this took place, and she managed to meet with Florus, where she begged him to show clemency. At the same time, the Sandhedrein and priestly elite prostrated themselves before the people, urging them to show restraint, even as Florus demanded they assemble to greet two cohorts. The two cohorts had been instructed to not respond to the greetings of the assembled Judeans, and to attack if they heard any vilification of Florus.

At this point, Florus probably recognized that he had gone too far. He had been corrupt, and negligent, but had just been the average tyrant, and would probably not have been recalled for such mundane villainy. His murder of Roman citizens was worse than the usual awful administration. There would undoubtedly be an envoy to Rome complaining of his misdeeds, preventing any future posts. The only way to escape without being dismissed into irrelevancy, would be to goad Judea into full scale revolt and blame the stiff-necked Judeans for all the recent problems.

The Jews issued out of the city as commanded, and they greeted the Roman soldiers, but were ignored. Murmurs of dissent break out among the crowd, recognizing their cue, the soldiers attacked. In a frenzied rush, everyone attempted to escape to within the walls of Jerusalem. Around the gates, the unfortunate souls who fell underfoot were mashed into a pulp. The column followed, attacking the unarmed citizens gleefully, as most of the soldiers were auxiliaries from nearby lands who had a special hatred for the Jews.

The violence was reciprocated inside the walls of Jerusalem, as Jews pelted the Roman columns from rooftops, and forced them to flee to sanctuary in the well-fortified palace of Herod and the imposing Antonia fortress next to the Temple. Jewish insurgents, recognizing the threat to the Temple, destroyed the colonnades between the Antonia and the Temple.


Jerusalem from the Rooftop. This is a 1:50 scale model overlooking the upper city. The Temple and the Antonia Fortress are visible in the background, and Herod's palace is visible to the left. Picture gotten from http://danperry.livejournal.com/51908.html?thread=190404

Florus, recognizing his vulnerability fled Jerusalem, leaving one cohort behind under siege. He wrote to his superior, Cestius Gallus, alleging that the Jews had revolted unprovoked. Gallus, recently appointed to his position as governor of Syria after the skilled general Corbulo had been forced to commit suicide by the paranoid Nero, was an inexperienced general, but a competent administrator. Gallus sent the tribune Neapolitanus, who was joined by King Agrippa II, to gauge the allegiance of Jerusalem for himself.

They were welcomed peacefully, allowing Neapolitanus to judge the whole affair Florus’ fault. The Emperor would receive news of his failing, and Judea would get yet another procurator. However, the reactionaries in the mob were not pleased. They had been looking forward to war eagerly, knowing that they had God on their side.

King Agrippa knew the jingoistic’s remained unsatisfied. He gave a speech to the public to persuade them to pursue peace. Never a beloved man, Agrippa droned on issues that were not the instigating factors of revolt. He pointed out that more taxes were owed than Florus took out of the treasury. He attempted to point out the sheer futility of revolt, that Rome had crushed nations more martial and better prepared than Judea, and that it would undoubtedly destroy holy Jerusalem if rebellion was attempted. His sister, Berenice, gave Agrippa some legitimacy in the eyes of the mass, as she at least was religious, though rumor had the two engaging in incest.

After enough exhortation, the people grudgingly started to repair the damage to the city and wait for a new procurator to be appointed. Attempting to push his advantage, Agrippa misestimated the extent of the hatred toward Florus. He urged the people to obey the disgraced procurator until a new one could be appointed. That could not be done. Agrippa was run out of Jerusalem, stones flying after him.
 
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So around when would we be expecting to see divergences in the timeline? Could we see more anti-semitic Christian sects (Marcion of Sinope going mainstream?) take the ascendancy instead of the Nicene faith? Or could we expect a supreme ascendancy of henotheistic faiths? (Isis, Sol Invictus, Neoplato, Zalmoxis and Mithras come to mind)

Or, more importantly, should I shelve such long-term questions for later?
 
So around when would we be expecting to see divergences in the timeline? Could we see more anti-semitic Christian sects (Marcion of Sinope going mainstream?) take the ascendancy instead of the Nicene faith?

The POD is about a year from from the last update. Things start to deviate considerably after that.

Christianity is still really young, but it will survive the revolt, as per OTL. It just will develop differently, with much of the New Testament being completely different. I think rather than become more anti-semitic, Christianity would become more Judaic, as the fiscus Judaicus would not be levied, so Christianity would not have to disassociate themselves with Judaism to avoid paying the tax. To the uninformed Roman, Christianity will remain just another sect of Judaism for a while. Also, theologically, Judaism hasn't lost as much allure as it did in OTL when its most sacred structure in its holiest city was destroyed. The gentile God-fearer's might not have as much impetus to become Christian. However, the Council of Jerusalem already happened, and Paul has been preaching for a while, so Christianity won't quite disappear.

Or could we expect a supreme ascendancy of henotheistic faiths? (Isis, Sol Invictus, Neoplato, Zalmoxis and Mithras come to mind)

Or, more importantly, should I shelve such long-term questions for later?

It is my understanding that the Crisis of the Third Century was a primary catalyst in upending traditional Roman religion, by shaking peoples faith in the usual gods. That, coupled with slow cultural osmosis, is what led to the rise of the foreign mystery cults. Obviously, with a POD so early, the Crisis of the Third century as we know it will be butterflied away, but the Roman empire in this TL will have its share of catastrophe as well.

I haven't reached that far in the planning stages of this TL, so everything said above is really tentative, and I need to read a lot more about the non-Judean/not-Judaism parts.
 
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Thanks!

A brief overview of Second Temple Religious practices

A Kingdom of Priests and a Holy Nation

Late Second Temple Judaism, had no one distinguishing creed or feature. The four philosophies present were those of the Pharisees, Zealots, Sadducees, and Essenes. The Torah, supposedly God's commandments as handed down to the Israelite's through Moses during the 40 years in the desert, formed the core basis for the different groups of Judaism. In the intervening centuries, other poetic works and histories had become widely accepted as being divinely given. However, despite all its importance the Torah was only a book. The one shared aspect of Judaism that could not be denied was the Temple in Jerusalem, as it was the only centralized focus of the religion.

The Pharisees were the ideological descendants of the Hasidim, the piously religious instigators of the Maccabean revolt. They were distinguished ideologically by their belief in an Oral Law, in addition to the Written Law as handed down by Moses. The Oral Law was transmitted from teacher to student, and did not exist in any definitive, authoritative state. In addition, they believed in an afterlife, where the souls of the righteous were reincarnated, and the souls of the wicked doomed to eternal punishment. They were also distinguished by believing God had a hand in every event, and that free will was quite limited.

Pharisaic leaders were called Rabbis, and they usually preached a unique interpretation of the Law to their disciples, founding distinct strands of thought. Two such prominent schools were those of Hillel, and his perpetually losing sparring partner Shammai, who formed two such influential schools of thought, disputing Jewish Law with each other.

Members usually came from middle and lower class society, though there were aristocratic and priestly Pharisee’s. They viewed the Sadducee priestly establishment as corrupt, but varied among themselves regarding Roman domination over Judea. The Pharisee’s were probably the most numerous sect, though they were not centralized and there was as much diversity in the philosophy as outside it.

A left wing segment of the Pharisee’s led by Judas of the Galilee succeeded, creating the Zealots. They rejected the Pharisee conservative wing’s healthy regard for Roman power, and viewed it as a necessity for Jews to rise up against the Romans and found an independent state. These fanatical belief was the major differentiation between them, and the rest of the Pharisees, and they acted upon it. Sicarii, named for the daggers they used, were Zealots who worked as assassins, killing anyone they decided was complicit with the infernal polytheist occupiers.

They would regularly sneak into crowds, sometimes dressed as woman, kill their mark, and vanish into the crowd. In later years, the Zealots discovered a new way to fund their enterprise, namely by kidnapping relatives of the elite, and extorting money in order to return them safely. Obviously, the Zealot party, though decentralized, was a prominent initiator of the events that led to the Great Revolt.

Another relevant party were the Sadducees, the apex of Second Temple elite. They were the Hellenized elite, rich land owners, Temple priests. In the intellectual sphere, Sadducees main disagreement with Pharisees came from the belief that only the Written Law as recorded by Moses on Mount Sinai was valid. They believed in free will, and notably did not believe in the existence of any sort of Afterlife. Whereas Pharisees were usually collegial with one another, Sadducees were united based on a common class interest, and thus had more bitter relationships with each other.

The nominal leader of the Sadducees was the High Priest, the direct descendant of Moses brother Aaron, and the man responsible for the Temple. This position, formerly august and well respected, was gradually degraded by the continual replacement of its officeholders according to the political will of the Roman governors, creating a bickering group of former High priests who congregated around the Temple. Sadducees were mostly unified in their support of Roman rule, knowing quite well their very existence depended on Roman largesse.

The final philosophy was that of the Essenes, a strange group of heterodox Jews. In the late Second Temple period, Judaism was in a state of flux. The canon had not been solidified, so the great unifier among all Jews, basically what constituted a Jew, was belief in the sanctity of the Temple.

Essenes flaunted that. The common depiction of them, though a narrow stereotype, is that of religious devout ascetics, who shunned mortal needs to focus on the divine. There was a narrow apocalyptic focus, an almost visceral eagerness for the end times to arrive, and God to cleanse the Earth of sinners. In reality, Essenism had been formed when a psuedo-messianic figure known as the Master of Justice gathered a following and declared the End times to be nigh. He had been martyred and his followers became the Essenes. There was an entire body of apocalyptic literature unique to Essenes. Qumran was home to the most prominent communities of Essenes, who furiously stayed pure. It took years to become an Essene, slowly rising through the ranks, and required abstention from all other facets of life. However, other less isolated and more integrated Essene communities existed, where marriages occurred and ritual purity wasn't as big a fixation.

The last, eclectic religious group that was considered a part of normative Judaism were the messianic cults that kept getting spawned. These cults, as focused on the End-times as the Essenes, all basically stemmed from the nebulous prophesies of Scripture predicting some sort of anointed leader who would began an era of divine authority. As Judea was increasingly marginalized by the Romans, and aggressive Hellenization resumed, it was only natural for many Jews to long for the time when they would be vindicated, when Judaism would retake the rightful position it had occupied during that fabled golden age of David and Solomon.

Many preachers across Judea declared themselves Messiah, and had a following. The pseudo-messiahs usually came from a Pharisaic background, to maximize the number of followers. Both the Jewish and Roman leadership justly regarded these messianic claimants as threats to the established order, as some, like an Egyptian prophet, could assemble thousands of people and incite revolt.
 
ooh~~~! *is now really excited about this*

I'll try not to let you down!

The Voice of the Lord Stirs the Wilderness

With Agrippa gone, Jerusalem was in a state of flux. The cohort in Jerusalem remained barricaded and immobile, and Florus had retreated into inaction. It was time for the radical, jingoistic Zealots to come to the forefront of rebellion.

Almost simultaneously, two different Zealots seized separate strongholds. The craggy fortress of Masada, an unassailable bastion overlooking a crucial trade route by the Dead Sea, was stormed by Menachem, a professional revolutionary. He had banditry in his blood, being a grandson of Judas the Galilean who had started the census rebellion 60 years earlier, who in turn had been the son of a bandit in the Galilee that a young Herod had killed.


Picture taken by the author from atop Masada, looking down at the exposed trade route.

Menachem knew of the vast stash of weapons stored on the arid peak by paranoid rulers. He recognized the stores of dried foods and the full cisterns of clean water that could serve as near unlimited provisions. And even better, the Roman garrison of Masada was not attentive and small. The fortress was ripe for the taking. The Romans didn’t even put up a fight.

In the metropolis of Jerusalem, Eleazar ben Ananias was having more trouble securing Zealot hegemony. Eleazar, the son in a family of High Priests, had been kidnapped by Sicarii extorters as a boy who had received money from his father, Ananias, to be returned. Somewhere along the way, Eleazar had been infected with the radical Zealot philosophy. He now had the means to put it in action.

Eleazar was captain of the Temple, an important bureaucratic role, and he had garnered a following of many impressionable young priests. These priests, of lower status than the great priestly houses that dominated the High Priesthood, held a grudge against their supposed betters, and supported Eleazar’s decree that ended sacrifices for the Emperor.

This meant war. The sacrifices were a long established Roman custom forcing the client state to acknowledge Roman supremacy. It had been verging on mutiny to only sacrifice on behalf of the Emperor, not directly to him, but the Romans had made an exemption for the strict monotheism of the Jews.

None of the esteemed elders of the Temple, not even Ananias, could persuade Eleazar to resume the sacrifice. They cited centuries of precedent, pointed out riches that past emperors had bequeathed to the Temple, and declared that Eleazar’s actions would destroy the majestic Temple, newly rebuilt. Eleazar would not budge.

Neither would Florus. He was not going to risk any more prestige engaging in street fights in the streets of Jerusalem. It was up to Agrippa to restore order. On August 26th, roughly 3 months since the whole affair started, two thousand cavalry were send from Agrippa’s domain in the north to wrest control of the Temple from Eleazar. Agrippa could only claim religious authority, being king in the Galilee and not Jerusalem.

The cavalry, led by Agrippa’s most trusted general, Phillip, took the upper city easily. The Temple itself remained a formidable obstacle. After a week of skirmishing, Eleazar used the annual Festival of the Wood-Gathering for his advantage. The holiday was a mundane affair centered on the namesake need for wood in the treeless hills of Judea, but pilgrims did arrive carrying wood. The Royal forces led by Phillip allowed pilgrims up to the Temple, and fellow Sicarii swarmed up to support Eleazar.

With numerical superiority and unequaled morale, Eleazar vanquished Phillip without battle. He trapped the remaining Roman cohort and the Royalists inside the Antonia. In a canny political move, the Zealot forces burned Ananias’ palace, Agrippa’s palace, and then the Record Office, where public debt records had been held. This move, an explicit attempt to appeal to the struggling underbelly of Judean society, demonstrated Eleazar’s future plans to usher in a Messianic era.

Judea had slowly developed into an oligarchy. When first resettled by the Jewish refugees trickling home from Babylon, the land had been sparsely populated, without any differentiation by class except that of priests and commoners. It was a theocracy, run by hereditary high priests in Jerusalem, a hamlet scarcely deserving of being called a village. After the Maccabean revolt, things started to change. Jerusalem became a thriving city of 40,000 people, and the center of a pilgrimage economy. In addition, the biblical Jubilee, the returning of property to its rightful owner every 50 years ceased to be practiced, allowing wealth to be piled up in the hands of a few.

Land accumulated as small farmers living on the margins had bad years, requiring them to sell land or go in debt to a larger farmer or a recipient of the inflow of wealth from the Temple pilgrimages. This process continued, exacerbated by population growth resulting in ever smaller slices of land, churning out vast numbers of futureless tenant farmers. Soon the land was owned by royals, priests, and magnates.

Judea’s only industries had been the Temple and farming. However, the lucrative Judean dates that grew by the Dead Sea were the only cash crops, and they were Royal estates. Everyone else subsisted one subsistence farming. As farming became a dead end, people couldn’t migrate to Jerusalem and make sacred objects. The competition was already there, and no one would apprentice a non-relative. Yet, due to the aforementioned peculiarities of Judea, the population increased incessantly and the unemployed were given enough charity not to starve, but not enough to live. Herod and his successors had created massive public work projects to attempt to prevent such vagrancy. The Temple Mount had been created via massive arches and mammoth stones and a near century of labor. Herod had cut off the temple of a mountain to make a fort, and had fortified numerous others. By the inception of the revolt, the Temple in its glory had been completed just years before, and the municipal authorities of Jerusalem, were attempting to alleviate the unemployment problem by paving all the roads of Jerusalem.


The Judean Desert, a center of banditry (picture taken by author)

These stopgap measures didn’t prevent unrest. Adolescent males especially found themselves increasingly replaceable and irrelevant. Across the hilly terrain of Judea and the Galilee, many young men abandoned their villages and became bandits. This social phenomenon is well documented in many cultures, and too the villages the bandits are plucky heroes, whereas to the authorities they are nefarious pests. Many villages even had hidden caverns in their midst. These bandits exploited the local terrain they knew exceptionally well to prey on gentile adversaries. They were the perfect recruiting class for a rebellion.
 
Already at almost 700 views! Thanks for reading guys, there will not be a update tomorrow, but will resume on a daily basis starting on Sunday. Don't worry about similarity to OTL, the timeline will begin to diverge quite soon.

If you have any questions, please just ask!

Teeth of Iron, Claws of Bronze

By September 2, the two bodies of Zealots had made a tentative alliance. Menachem entered Jerusalem dressed flamboyantly like the prophesied messiah, bringing with him men and weapons from Masada. The assembled army, bereft of siege weapons, managed to break through the first wall of the Antonia only to find a second having been built behind it. The Romans and Royalists fled to nearby towers.

The Zealots graciously allowed the Jewish Royalists to leave the tower. They were really out for the axillary cohort made up of the rabidly anti-Semitic Cesareans. Many of the Royalist cavalry men then joined their coreligionists in revolt, Silas the Babylonian notable among them. Phillip disappeared, apparently waiting to see the outcome of the war in hiding.

Squabbling factions scarcely care about the common enemy when it poses no threat to them, and Eleazar saw his chance to destroy Menahem for once and for all. His men attacked the haughtily dressed Menachem on the Temple Mount, and overwhelmed Menachem’s forces. Menachem and a small bodyguard fled to Ophel, but he was captured there, and tortured to death. The remainder of Menahem’s army, now led by Eleazar ben Jairus, a relative of Menahem, fled back to Masada, assured of their invulnerability on that unassailable peak.

Eleazar ben Ananias, was quite busy. He was the de facto ruler of the first truly independent Jewish state in decades, and he had some grudges to repay. His father, Ananias the High Priest, had hid in an underground bunker with Eleazar’s uncle, hoping to escape notice. Without a second thought, Eleazar ordered his father and uncles executed as a traitors.

The cowering Romans in their towers also had to be dealt with. They and their compatriots had brutally murdered thousands of innocents, Eleazar would show them no mercy. Instead he dishonored the soldiers, promising them a safe passage of they laid down their arms, but instead he killed all but one of the soldiers, sparing their commander by forcibly circumcising him to convert him. By September 26th, Jerusalem had been purged of Roman forces. Judea would be next.

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The mighty Antonia fortress was built by Herod in 19 CE. From it, a armed force could command the Temple and the city. (Picture Source Wikimedia Commons)

The Roman Empire spanned from the Atlantic to the Euphrates, from the Rhine to the Sahara. Ever since the Diaspora inflicted by Nebecudnazer, Jews had been dispersed over an even greater extent, living everywhere from Gaul to India. There was even a Jewish kingdom in Mesopotamia that was a tributary of the Parthian Empire, Adiabene. Only in the disconnected regions of Judea and the Galilee did Jews make up a majority, separated by the population of heretical Samaritans.

The Roman Empire, with a population of around 60 million individuals, thus had roughly 6 million Jewish residents, or residents who were sympathetic to the Jewish idea of one God. Across Syria and Egypt especially, many cities had large Jewish populations. An entire Quarter of Alexandria, the second largest Roman city was reserved for Jews. And the Jews were not always the most collegial of neighbors. They had special religious practices, did not integrate well, and had almost no imperial support.

Pogroms sprang up like toadstools across the Eastern half of the Empire. Gentiles seizing their chance at revenge, wealth, or simply extolling violence attacked Jewish communities. In many places, Jews counterattacked, resulting in fierce urban warfare. The Jews, lacking the support of the Roman establishment usually suffered the heavier loses. Only in Gerasa did cooler heads prevail, as ethnic strife was averted.

In the areas immediately adjacent to Judea, the sheer preponderance of Jews turned the tides. The Roman fortresses of Machareus in Perea and Cypros overlooking Jericho were both taken by storm, as Perea, Idumea, and the Galilee all became hot beds of revolt.

From his seat in Antioch, two weeks away by foot, Cestius Gallus had to act. The mild mannered bureaucrat had to put out the fires of revolution. He had delayed action for three months of petty warfare when his presence alone might have been enough to end the nascent rebellion. By mid-October, the formidable legions of Rome had finally arrived at the scene. Gallus commanded the Twelfth Legion, Fultimata, along with two thousand men from six other cohorts and associated cavalry, axillaries and allied contributions. The light-armed axillaries especially could be useful, being a potent counter force against the Judean rabble’s attempt to conduct guerilla warfare. He commanded 35,000 men, some battle-hardened warriors who had fought against the Parthians in the last war between the two super-powers. The disorganized peasants massing in Jerusalem would be crushed.

Rome had achieved its mastery of the Mediterranean world via its elite infantry core, the legion. They were professional soldiers, who could be relied on not to panic in battle. They were equipped with sturdy shields, stabbing short swords, and heavy javelins, protected by armor. The heavily armed and armored legions were the pinnacle of military might, near invulnerable on a level field of their choosing. However, Cestius’ forces were not going to be fighting on some placid plane. They would have to negotiate the mountainous terrain of Judea, climbing the knolls lumbered with supplies, armor, and siege equipment. Even more dangerous for the Roman expedition was the impeding beginning of the rainy season, which would render roads impassable till March. Gallus was confident that he could manage to take Jerusalem before the onset of the rains. It was a race against time.
 
The Sun Stood Still and the Moon Stopped

The methodical and meticulous Gallus, a virgin at conducting campaigns, first struck with a deliberate terror campaign aimed to crush enemy morale. He burned the insurgent city of Chabulon to the ground, but was welcomed into the pro-Roman city of Sepphoris in the Galilee, and spared it. The Jewish port of Joppa met its fate in fire, as did other coastal towns.

The only setback occurred at the small town of Asamon, where the unburdened Jewish forces held the higher ground. They were able to skirmish with the Romans who could not use the usual manipular legionary techniques, but were eventually outflanked and routed. Other than the slightly less ebullient victory at Asamon, the Jewish forces had not confronted the Roman armies. The disorganized gangs fled from the legions, apparently terrified of the professional soldiers.


A map of Gallus' route. (Picture taken from Wikipedia)

By November 7th, Gallus was prepared to strike at the heart of the rebellion, Jerusalem. The Jewish bandits no longer threatened his supply lines, and he still had time before the winter rains fell. In a novice mistake of an overeager, inexperienced commander, Gallus did not order the road to Jerusalem properly reconnaissanced. His enemies were not as unprepared.

The Jewish irregulars emptied out of Jerusalem to raid the stretched out marching formations. The Jews were armed with farmer’s weapons, light projectile weapons that allowed them flexibility. From a distance they could pelt Romans with javelins or slingshot, and then melt back into the hills before the Roman infantry could meet them hand to hand. No great clash of armies was needed for victory. The Jews just needed to continually sap Roman strength until newly emboldened Jews streamed to battle, allowing them to overwhelm the enemy forces.


Typical Jewish fighters early in the war. They were better armed later with pillaged Roman weapons and armor. (Picture taken from Apocalypse: The Great Jewish Revolt Against Rome AD 66-73 by Neil Faulkner)

Marching through the pass of Beth-Horon, the Jews attacked. They were a disorganized horde, with no general and no strategy. Some were former bandits, like Simon bar Giora. He had lived on the edge of society before hostilities commenced, disgracefully born the son of a convert, but was admired for his unequaled physical strength and courage. Simon was young, in his early 20’s, and shared in the plight of the disenfranchised masses. In such chaotic times, his charisma attracted like-minded peers, and he became the leader of a gang.

Other commanders came from more established roots. Silas the Babylonian was a descendant of the Batanean settlers imported by Herod to act as mercenaries for the hated king. He had defected from Herod’s great grandson, Agrippa, and now served as a rebel leader.The aristocracy, despite being the group that leaned the most Pro-Roman, had its share of idealist rebels. Niger the Perean, a wealthy aristocrat from the land across the Jordan, joined the rebellion, and distinguished himself as a fine commander. He co-led with Silas a varied group of locals and Adiabene volunteers in the battle.

Niger and Silas led the attack on the Roman front, and Simon raided the army from behind. The Jews won a minor victory, suffering a mere 20 deaths. The Romans suffered significant casualties, around 500 men, but were hurt worst by Simon’s capture of many of the mules in the baggage train. It is actually more astonishing that the Roman forces did not take worse losses. The legionaries were strung out, loaded with 60 pounds of supplies as they were in the midst of climbing up the half mile of elevation to Jerusalem. The path was unpaved and unfamiliar, and they had not been expecting hostilities.

Gallus wasn’t dissuaded from continuing the march onward to Jerusalem. He knew that the Jews were assembled in squabbling factions, as likely to attack each other as him. Camping on Mt. Scopus, a mile from the city, Gallus stalled. He spent three days foraging for supplies, before pressing onward to burn the suburb of Betheza inside the outermost of Jerusalem’s walls. Agrippa once again begged the rebels to submit to terms of peace. A few of the pro-Roman elite planned to turn the city over, but were murdered before they could finish the traitorous deed. The rebels remained firmly ensconced in the older, second wall, prepared for siege.

The moment of truth had arisen. Jerusalem once again fell under direct assault by Roman troops, as Gallus attacked the wall opposite Herod’s palace. The superiority of Roman troops, was almost felt, as for 5 days the Romans dug under the wall, attempting to destroy it. The holy Temple, the crown jewel of Judaism, was almost set aflame. Had Gallus succeeded in entering Jerusalem, as he was so tantalizingly close to doing, the rebellion would have been all but over. Yet, the bombardment by the Jews on the wall, coupled with incessant sorties prevented any breakthrough.

Winter was coming. It was late November, and the rainy season was now underway. Gallus was in a bind. His supply lines had been compromised, his provisions had been lost in battle, and the enemy remained as gleefully strong as when he began the campaign. Rather than risk his entire army, a general retreat was needed. Jerusalem would stand for another year. Another alien conqueror had to slink away, unaccomplished.

As the army fell back toward the coast, the Romans would by necessity pass through Beth-Horon once again. The gorge had already been famous as the site of previous Jewish victories, as the locale where Joshua had ordered the Sun and the moon to stand still, and more recently, as the site where the last successful Jewish revolt, that of the Maccabees, had crushed a Seleucid army.

Gallus unintentionally set the stage for a three-peat. After two days of being snipped at by surrounding guerrilla fighters, the army’s flanks devastated and the baggage left behind, he descended down the road into Beth-Horon. Once again, he showed his inexperience by neglecting to scout out the narrow defile. His army waddled into an ambush outnumbered and soon to be outfought.


Looking down on the road through Beth-Horon. The Jewish fighters would have had a similar vantage point. (Picture taken from this blog

Projectiles rained from above onto the panicked Romans. They had no means of returning fire onto the heights. Cavalry was useless in the pass, and the Jews blocked the exit. Captured siege weapons exacerbated the Roman plight. The Roman army took severe losses, bottled in the valley until the fall of night. After darkness descended, Gallus ordered the rearguard to maintain the camp as if the whole army remained, as he slipped out with the shattered remnant of his legion under the cover of night.

The next morning, the Jews massacred the stranded Romans, angry that part of the legion had managed to escape. Even so, it was one of the most ignominious defeats Rome had suffered. Gallus had lost 6000 men to the rebels. He had lost artillery, animals, and had given the Jews a source of weapons and armor. Even worse, from a Roman perspective, was that the Legion XII Fultimata had lost its sacred emblem, its eagle. Cestius Gallus was no longer fit to be a Roman. He would commit suicide. Florus had no choice but to follow him.

Jubilation rang out in the streets of Jerusalem. God had surely blessed the Jewish people with another miracle. Any doubter of the rightness of rebellion had his misgivings wiped away, when the Jews had done the impossible. Rome was shown to be powerless in the face of Gods will. The freedom of Zion was at hand.
 
This looks very well researched.

If you have knowledge of Israel in the first century BC, I may have a question or two for you, as I'm writing my own TL with a significant portion involving the Middle-East in that era.
 
This looks very well researched.

If you have knowledge of Israel in the first century BC, I may have a question or two for you, as I'm writing my own TL with a significant portion involving the Middle-East in that era.

I have fair knowledge of Hasmonean and Herodian historiography and would be glad to help.



In those days there was no King in Israel

Far away, the most powerful man in the world had just ceremonially dug the first shovelful of dirt intended for his canal to bisect the Corinthian isthmus. His negligence in governing was renowned, as he had recently gone on tour to show off his limited skills at music, theater, and sports. Nero was attentive enough to realize the threat that revolt in Judea posed. The ancient eastern enemy, Parthia would love to exploit such a disturbance, especially given the strong Jewish lobby in Parthia.

A competent, battle tested general was needed to end the crisis. But paranoia could never take you too far. Nero was well aware of his certain, dubious, reputation among the masses. He needed to pick a nonentity, someone who would never dare to challenge Nero’s claim to the throne.

Flavius Vespasian fit the bill perfectly. A veteran general who had quashed an uprising in Britain quite competently, Vespasian had been given a triumph and the governorship of Africa. Rather than indulge in the usual scum and villainy of corrupt governors, Vespasian had left Africa a pauper. He had resorted to being a mule salesman to subsidize his living. Even better for Nero, was Vespasian’s distinct lack of noble legitimacy that would entitle him to the belief that he could become emperor. He was the perfect nobody for the job.


A bust of Vespasian. (Image from Wikipedia)

Vespasian was granted command of three legions as the Propraetorian Legate of the Army of Judea, the Vth, the Xth and the XVth. The Fifth and the Tenth were already stationed in Syria, and Vespasian traveled overland to meet them. His eldest son, Titus, was put in command of the Fifteenth, located in Egypt. Come spring, the disorganized rebels would have to face yet another vast army.

In the six months since the affair at Caesarea that sparked war, the Jews had not designated any leaders. Individuals such as Eleazar ben Ananias, Menachem and Simon bar Giora had achieved local preeminence, but they only spoke for their narrow subsection of subscribers. For any chance of facing the insatiable war machine that was Rome, a unified front had to be assembled.

Across the Roman world, such an organization would be comprised of the local elite. Judea was, as usual, a unique case. The local elite were for the most part not respected. Herod had appointed cronies and phonies to positions of wealth and power during his nearly four decade long reign. This newly enriched aristocracy had to lack legitimacy from the start, otherwise the detested Herod would have been overthrown. Thus, when Judea became directly ruled by of Rome, the oblivious Romans assumed that the local respected elite were the rich landowners like in most other places. However, the complicated system of patronage that made Rome run did not exist in Judea. The Herodian upper classes were simply hated. Rabbis, religious teachers of the Law, were the real favorites of the masses. Even the High Priests were no longer as respected as in the days of old, coming from distant lands and having ephemeral terms dictated by the pagan rulers.

No matter. The elite recognized the shoddy position they were in. Some were certainly convinced by the miracle of Beth-Horon and bought into the messianic millennialism of the day, enthusiastically supporting the war. Others recognized that the hand of Rome could not be stayed, and preferred to sit out the war, and emerge unscathed. However, that was not an option. The mob would consume such traitors. They would have to win the grudging population over by deeds, risking mob violence aimed to overthrow them for perceived inadequacies.

In the Hall of Unhewn Stones, where the Sanhedrein met, a general convention of the high-born priests and the rich landowners met to organize the provisional government that would resist the next Roman offensive. Sitting adjacent to the magnificent Temple, which was bedecked in gold and glory, that smelled of incense and burnt offerings, the elite began to plan.
Judea would be divided into six districts, governed by generals selected the provisional government. Ananus ben Ananus, a totally distinct former High Priest than the recently deceased Ananias ben Nebedeus, appointed himself supreme commander. He had lost his job as High Priest a few years before the revolt after violating procedural laws after ordering a certain James, brother of Jesus stoned. As commander, The Sadducee Ananus had a tendency to micromanage his dispersed forces and to lose his temper when things did not go his way. He had grown up luxuriously, and had exercised power throughout his entire life. War would be a wake-up call for him. His deputy, Joseph ben Gorion was a friend and ally, who exercised powers as the second in command. The other positions were harder to allot. Ananus did not want any of the true believers to join his government. He preferred that the government stay firmly in the hands of the educated elite, people he knew and could almost trust.

Using class distinction as his grading criteria, Ananus refused to seat any of the numerous bandit leaders and Zealots, despite their contribution to the cause. Simon bar Giora was regarded as uncouth and dangerous. Ananus falsely charged him of robbing the houses of the elite, and managed to run him out of Jerusalem and into Masada with a much diminished clique.
Eleazar ben Simon had profited the most from beth-Horon, scooping up the Roman treasury, siege engines, and many weapons. He was marginalized, but when an unintended power vacuum developed because Eleazar ben Ananias was appointed governor of Idumea, Eleazar ben Simon seized the chance to become master of the Temple Mount.

After the dust had settled, Ananus appointed young, proven, competent men to lead the districts, appointing the following men:

For Idumea: Niger the Perean, the current governor of appointed by the Romans, had to settle for being superseded by Eleazar ben Ananias and Jesus ben Sapphias.

For Jericho: Joseph ben Simon.

For Perea: Manasseh.

For Thamna and the West: John the Essene.

For Gophna and the center: John ben Mathias, the son of the current high priest.

For the Galilee: Joseph ben Mattiyahu. The Galilee would be hardest province to hold, and the least distinguished. The Galileans were regarded as hillbillies and rednecks, who scarcely deserved being called real Jews by the scoffing elite. In addition, the Galilee was not contiguous with the rest of the Judean lands, being cut off by the notorious hostile Samaritans to the south and surrounded by Greek cities. However, the Galilee was important strategically, it was the path that Adiabene and Babylonian support must go through to help the rebellion. The real kicker for poor Joseph was the impeding invasion. The Roman armies would have to march through the Galilee to put out the rebellion, as Cestius Gallus had already done. Joseph had only a couple months to prepare his rural and undeveloped province on the periphery for Vespasian’s assault.


Map of the Districts as assigned by the Provisional Government (Base Map comes from Wikipedia)

Despite the elaborate planning on the part of provisional government, most of the defensive provisions never happened. Jerusalem was too alluring, too central, and most of the generals never even left the safety and comfort of Jerusalem's walls. Jerusalem itself would be governed by Ananus, and Joseph ben Gorion. It would be the focus of the provisional government due to its massive population, impenetrable defenses, and religious significance. Thus, the first acts of the provisional government were to repair the walls of Jerusalem from the recent attack.

The second action was more symbolic. Every Jewish adult male had to pay the annual half shekel tithe to the Temple. Ananus decried that new coins would be struck, Jewish coins. These ceremonial coins crowed loudly to the world what the revolt had achieved and what it would intend. The Freedom of Zion had occurred. An anointed king, the messiah was now required. It was time for the Redemption of Zion.


Picture from Jewish Virtual Library

In the heady days after the miracle at beth-Horon, the newly united Jews were massed and prepared for battle. After an exhilarating month in the markets of Jerusalem, tallying up the booty gained, and praying for more divine providence, the 15th of Kislev approached. The upcoming holiday of Hanukah, had not been ordained by God in his holy scripture. It had been decreed by the Hasmonean kings when newly crowned monarchs, ostensibly to celebrate Sukkot two months late because the Temple had been desecrated when Sukkot had actually occurred that year. The Hasmoneans found the public display of lamps a useful gauge of who supported them and who didn’t. By the time of the revolt this messy detail had been forgotten. The Hasmonean era had morphed into a glorious century of Judean sovereignty.

The omnipresent burning reminders of the Hasmoneans prompted the first Jewish offensive. The town of Ashkelon was long rumored to be the birthplace of Herod, that destroyer of the Hasmonean dynasty. What more, the town had an ancient tradition of hostility to the Jews, stemming back from the days of the Judges. It this era, it remained obstinately pro-Roman. That had to change.
 
This looks very well-researched and thorough, and I look forward to seeing more of it. I'm not sure where you plan on taking the story, but given the power imbalance, the Jews will have a very hard time winning the war - unless they can either bring in outside allies or trigger a simultaneous revolt in the Jewish diaspora similar to what happened in 116-17. Even the Year of Four Emperors only delayed the reconquest of Judea IOTL, so you've got your work cut out for you if you want to achieve more.
 
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