ANST - FW: Musing on Sept 1 & 2 -- Zealously Remembering Zion

[j'lynn yeates]

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- -----Original Message-----
From: Ellsworth Weaver [mailto:astroweaver at yahoo.com]
Sent: Saturday, September 02, 2000 20:19
To: 2thpix at surfari.net
Subject: Musing on Sept 1 & 2 -- Zealously Remembering Zion


Dear Folk,

The country had been in semi-open revolt for three years. Six hundred
of the occupying troops had been waylaid and killed. Even the high
priest who was urging moderation had been assassinated. Rival groups
of
rebels fought with each other in the streets. Each group claimed that
they were led by a savior who would lead the country out of its cruel
slavery. In point of fact, the nation was not enslaved and things
were
going to get extremely worse. On September 1 or 2, 70 CE, the capital
city would be utterly destroyed – burned and demolished. This date
marks the destruction of the Lower City of Jerusalem.

It was not as though Rome really needed anything from Jerusalem but
obedience. Being sent to govern Judea was to be sent to oblivion.
There
were constant civil strives, factions accusing each other of all
sorts
of disloyalty, holy men coming out of the desert to prophesy doom and
to lead nasty sneaks armed with daggers. A Roman citizen was just not
safe there. You might say, well then just leave. It was not that
easy.
If Judea refused to show respect to Rome and the Romans allowed it,
every jerkwater province would be in rebellion within the year. So,
it
was business.

I am sure most of you remember that Jerusalem was Judea’s capital
city.
How about a brief recap of some of its history?  In 537 BCE, the Jews
returned from their captivity in Babylon and started to rebuild The
Temple as the "Second Temple." It took until about 515 BCE to
complete
it. In 440 BCE, Nechemiah got there from Babylon and rebuilt the
walls
of the city. Ezra got there about 5 years later and had a hand in the
rebuilding of the city itself. The Temple got sort of ransacked by
King
Antiochus IV (a Greek king of the area) in 169 BCE. The Maccabees
overthrew the Greeks and in 164 BCE rededicated the Second Temple.
Caesar’s old enemy Pompey captured Jerusalem in 63 BCE which set up
Roman rule until 324 CE. In 37 BCE King Herod (the Great) built the
Antonia fortress to guard the entrance to The Temple, a palace and
three towers. He also worked to rebuild The Temple a bit. We do have
record of a Pontius Pilate who was Roman procurator of Judea from 26-
36 CE.  Joshua ben Joseph (Jesus) was said to be crucified under his
rule, and most Christian scholars put that date somewhere around 33
CE.
In 41-44 CE Agrippa, king of Judea built a new city wall (the "Third
Wall"). So we have The Second Temple with a fortress (Antonia) to
guard
it, and around the city a relatively new wall.

Vespasian along with his energetic son Titus were sent to take
command
of the Roman Army of the East in 69 CE.  It was time to put down the
Judean uprising. The next year, with four legions of Roman troops
ready, Titus decided it was time to demand respect. It was Passover,
70
CE, and the Holy City was crowded with tourists and the faithful who
had come to celebrate the deliverance of the Jewish people from
oppression. They had not even begun to feel the whip.

An interesting note: the Jewish defenses were originally headed by
Josephus who had been a member of the Peace Party. The Zealots were
impatient with his preparation for invasion and they fired him. The
Romans captured him or he surrendered himself to them. Josephus was a
careful recorder of events. It is through his records that we know
this
history. His books exist today. Go read them.

Titus was in direct command on Mount Scopus (to the West of the city)
with the Fifth, Seventh and Fifteenth Legion. He had a blocking force
of the Tenth Legion occupying Mount of Olives, the place where "Jesus
wept," to the East. Give or take auxiliaries that put the Roman
fighting force at 12,000- 16,000. On the side of the Jews there were
two rival captains, John of Giscala who held the Temple, the Antonia
fortress and the new town at Bezetha along with about 11,000 men, and
Simon Eleazar the son of Giora who commanded the upper and lower city
with about 10,000 men. Now that may seem like a pretty close battle
with the Romans being outnumbered and the Jews holding a fortified
town. It was. Do remember that the Roman force was trained, armored,
and battle-hardened. The Jewish force were men who were shopkeepers,
shepherds, and housewives (yes, the women fought, too) – a citizen’s
militia. This was to be no set-piece battle but a siege.

Titus’ forces broke through the Third Wall after 15 days of fighting.
That meant that the New City was taken by the Romans. The Second wall
took ten days to fall. Now the siege got to the Antonia Fortress. It
was the only way into the Temple and the citadel of Herod. Titus had
the troops build siege engines – towers and causeways – to attack
Antonia. However, these wooden structures were burnt in overnight
raids
by troops of John and Simon.

Titus then resorted to the traditional weapon of besieging armies:
hunger. He had his men build a wall completely around the city. It
took
the forces three days of very hurried building to erect a wall 39
stadia (about 7800 meters or 4.5 miles) long. This wall was enough to
ensure, with the aid of the Roman cavalry, that no one left and no
food
entered Jerusalem. The results were devastating. There were already
too
many folks inside Jerusalem due to the holiday. The food was not
readily stored. Soon bands of men roamed the streets looking for
anything in shops, spilled in the streets, anything. There were
reports
of cannibalism, perhaps overstated, amongst the walled in defenders
and
citizenry. Squabbles and outright conflict erupted between John and
Simon’s forces.

After about three weeks, battering rams and a cave-in of a mine shaft
breached the walls of the Antonia. A three o’clock in the morning
attack led to its fall. Titus had the Antonia Fortress reduced to
rubble to construct mounds against the Temple walls. For another
three
weeks the defenders held the outer porticoes and then the inner of
the
Temple. The fighting was fierce and deadly on both sides. The Romans
took enormous losses to gain entry.

Up to that point on August 10, 70 CE, the defenders were sure that
God
would save them. A Roman soldier hurled a torch into a hall next to
the
Holy of Holies.. The fire spread quickly throughout the building
complex. The fighting moved forward onto the temple platform. Many
Jews
threw themselves into the fire instead of yielding to the Romans. The
platform became a mass of smoking corpses.

The Romans did not stop there. They set fire to the palace in El Wad
and moved to burn the Ophel. By this date, September 1-2 70 CE, they
burned the Lower City of Jerusalem as far as the pool of Siloam.
There
still was the Upper City and a strong rampart to hold against the
Romans. John and Simon’s forces had been scavenging and evidently had
quite a haul of everything but food. Eighteen days of further Roman
preparation were enough to convince the defenders that it was a lost
cause. John and Simon along with most of their men secretly left the
city. Thus they left the Jewish citizenry alone to deal with the
Roman
legions.

One hundred and forty three days of besieging did not leave Titus in
a
very friendly mood. All the way along he had offered to stop the
madness if only the Jews would lay down their weapons. He sent
Josephus
to try to reason with them. Then, again, they did not yield when
Titus
crucified 500 prisoners nor when Titus sent some of the live
prisoners
back inside minus their hands. Of course, they were called "Zealots"
for a reason.

The walls of the Temple (except the West or Wailing Wall) and all the
other city walls were demolished. Titus preserved the Upper City as a
garrison for his Tenth Legion which he left to hold Jerusalem. During
that siege, more than a million people perished due to fire, sword,
disease, famine. The Jewish survivors of it were given an all
expenses
paid trip to Rome to see the gladiator combats and to feed the
animals.
Jewish slaves became fashionable throughout the Empire. The Jewish
people were expatriated, and never since has sacrifice been offered
up
to God on Jewish altars. The seven-branched candlestick (Menorah),
the
golden table of the shew-bread and the golden trumpets were carried
through the streets of Rome in triumph. Like I said, Titus was not in
a
good mood. He was quoted as saying "It is not I who have conquered.
God, in His wrath against the Jews, has made use of my arm." We are
not
sure to which god Titus was referring.

Incidentally, the slaughter recommenced a couple of years later. The
Emperor Hadrian dealt the final blow in 132 CE, as a result of
another
revolt led by a so-called Messiah, Bar Cocheba ("Son of the Star"),
the
Jews were again massacred leaving another million victims.

What have we learned from this? A well-organized military force can
beat back a squabbling militia? It is better to besiege than to be
besieged? Sometimes it is better not to let hotheads run your
campaigns? How about: grasshopper is always wrong in argument with
chicken?

A special birthday greeting to one of the prettiest ladies in the
West
Kingdom Lady Anna (Lori Hendrix) who graced this world with her
presence starting on September 2nd. I know it must have been about 21
years ago but I am not telling. We are all better that you are here:
Happy Birthday! Many thanks to the Baron Achmir for his help on Roman
legion strength. Heck, he even played the Jewish side in a wargame
scenario of this. That’s dedication!

If you are out dumping hot chicken fat on the heads of Roman
soldiers,
tunneling under some ancient walls, or just snacking on your shoe
leather and you want to send these missives on to others, go ahead,
you
crazy zealot, I love it. Do remember to keep my name and sig
attached.

We Remember Thee Zion,
J. Ellsworth Weaver

SCA – Sir Balthazar of Endor
AS – Polyphemus Theognis
TRV – Sebastian Yeats


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