Introduction: The Jews enjoyed
complete freedom and had a very liberal situation
in Rome and the Roman Empire during the early
period of BC. In spite of them enjoying freedom
there still had to suffer a certain amount of
restrictions. Racism on Jews was predominant during
that era and was also prevalent during the reign
of Augustus Caesar which eventually led to the
destruction of Jerusalem. [The Legend of Augustus]
As early as 6 AD, there was the annexation of
Judea which meant the nation of Judea of Jews
was seized as an imperial province by Emperor
Augustus though it was a peaceful affair resulting
in both the parties benefiting. In spite of the
annexation, Judea gained more stability and wealth,
while Rome extended its province. However, the
problems between the Jews and the Romans erupted
again with the death of Augustus in the 14 AD
and Tiberius taking over as the Emperor. During
his reign, there was immense prejudice towards
the Jews resulting in him expelling them from
Rome. After a few decades, they were again expelled
by Claudius. This led to strained relationship
between the two groups. This aggravated with the
appointment of Pontius Pilate, the Procurator
of Judea. Much to the disgruntled Jews, Pilate
went around violating Jewish customs. [Roman Rule,
2004]
Tension still prevailed in the Roman Empire with
the assassination of Tiberius and the empire being
taken over by Caligula. It all started with him
turning insane and wanting to be pronounced as
god and demanding everybody to worship him as
a divine individual. He, in the 40 AD was anti-Jewish
and tried to place his own statue in the enormous
Jewish temple in Jerusalem. The Jews began to
revolt, and a Jewish-Roman War erupted, when Caligula
was suddenly assassinated in Rome. Extensive riots
by the Jews in Alexandria in Egypt erupted which
made the successor of Caligula, Claudius allow
the Jews to practice their religion. His relationship
with the Jewish population was projected to be
cordial. This suppressed the mushrooming revolt
for the time being.
However, by 66 AD during the supremacy of the
Roman Emperor Nero, the Jews again revolted against
Rome for independence as they had done under the
regime of Maccabees. Nero was also like Caligula
and his reign was full of strange behavior and
terror. He like Caligula wanted everybody to worship
him as a god. [Treatment of the Jews in the Roman
Empire]
Owing to the corruption being carried out in
the Roman Empire, the Jewish population in Palestine
slowly started to revolt. They started to turn
rebellious throughout the Empire, predominantly
at Judea. The revolt resulted in a pagan sacrifice
in front of a synagogue in Caesarea in 66AD. There
were massive protests resulted in scores of Jews
being arrested. The Roman Procurator of Judea,
Gessius Florus worsened the whole situation by
setting out his troops on Jerusalem resulting
in thousands being killed. Jews fought back and
were successful in defeating Florus’ troops
as well as conquering Rome’s 12th Legion.
Emperor Nero was not too happy with the turn
of events and sent one of his minor generals,
Vespania, who later became the future emperor,
to subdue the revolt. When Vespania eventually
became the emperor in 69 AD, he left his son Titus
to completely wipe off the Jewish revolt. Titus
fought the Jews until his victory. He conquered
the fortress of Masada which had once housed the
last group of Jews. Under his commands, the Romans
built a great ramp up to the fortress along with
breaking down of the walls of the fortress. Titus
was also successful in destroying the Second Temple
of the Jews in Jerusalem which hasn’t been
rebuilt till date.
The Second Jewish Revolt started during the supremacy
of the Roman Emperor Hadrian. Now the Jews wanted
to be free of Roman rule. However, just like the
First Jewish Revolt, this revolt was also a failure.
Hadrian was completely against anything to do
with the Jews or Judaism and was a huge follower
of Greek and the Greek religion. After the failure
of the Second Jewish Revolt, Hadrian brought back
Israel under the Roman Empire and destroyed the
Second Temple which in turn resulted in many of
the Jews to leave Jerusalem and Israel and settle
in various other sections of the Roman or Parthian
empires. [Barnavi, Eli (Ed.) (1992)]
Analysis: The phenomenon of the dispersion of
the Jews to all parts of the Roman Empire was
called the Diaspora which is very similar to the
Babylonian Captivity. Owing to this Diaspora,
Israel has lesser Jews as compared to the Jews
in Babylon, Alexandria, Rome and other major parts
of the Roman and Parthian empires. The Romans
were successful in destroying everything in Jerusalem
except a single wall of the Temple including stealing
the holy menorah.
In spite of all this, Judeans still continued
to live in their land of Jerusalem in significant
numbers and started practicing their religion
until the 2nd century when Julius Severus devastated
Judea while putting down the bar Kokhba revolt.
After 135 AD, Jews were banned from entering the
city of Jerusalem. However, this banned was relaxed
as during the destruction of the rebuilt city
of Persians in the 7th century, Jews were found
to be living there. [Jewish history]
Due to the diaspora, many of the Israeli Jews
became slaves whereas others became citizens of
other parts of the Roman Empire. A majority of
the Jews in Antiquity have been descendants of
those who have converted in the cities coming
under the Hellenistic-Roman Empire like Alexandria,
Asia Minor. A lot of Jewish creed was rendered
homeless. This led to further conversion resulting
in the spread of the Jewish religion throughout
the Hellenistic civilization. This was a resultant
of the wars against the Romans and the following
construction of Jewish values for the post-Temple
period.
Conclusion: Judea which was under the Roman Empire
was at first a sovereign Jewish realm but slowly
the rule over Judea became less and less Jewish,
until subsequently it came under the direct rule
of Roman administration which was dreadful to
the Judean people. Gradually, in 66AD, Judeans
started to revolt against the atrocities of the
Roman rulers of Judea.
The Jewish War against the Roman Empire commenced
in 66 AD and concluded with the destruction of
Jerusalem in 70. In 64 AD, the injustice, atrocities
and oppression on the Jews reached its peak during
the reign of the proconsul Gessius Florus. During
this period, the Jews had full faith in their
religion and believed that God would come to their
rescue and support their cause. By 66, dissatisfaction
turned into open rebellion. The conflict commenced
in Caesarea as well as in Jerusalem. In November
of 66, Jewish Zealots were victorious and had
driven all Roman forces from Jerusalem and had
managed to kill more than 600 Roman troops. Despite
all the Roman occupation forces who tried to suppress
the revolt, they were no longer equal to the situation.
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