The Revolt Against the Roman Empire Begins
Roman persecution spread around the ancient world. In Israel, it started with heavy taxation and ended with outright slaughter. Growing discontent and a series of hostile acts against the Jews by the procurator Gessius Florus pushed the Jews into a full Revolt in 66 CE.
King Agrippa II and the leading rabbis advised a reconciliation, but Jerusalem soon fell into the hands of the zealot extremists, leading to uprisings throughout the country.
The Roman emperor Nero appointed Rome's most experienced commander, General Vespasian, to lead the attack on Judea. With the help of his son Titus, Vespasian assembled three legions and several contingents of auxiliary forces totaling some sixty thousand men and invaded the Galilee in 67 CE.
Video Image from Megallim
Megallim Institute (City of David)
Video courtesy of George Blumenthal and the Gol Family
Overview
Josephus, Wars 2.14.6, 2.17.2
“[Roman Procurator] Florus… sent some to take seventeen talents out of the sacred treasure (i.e. in the Temple), and pretended that Cæsar (i.e. Nero) wanted them. At this, the people were in confusion immediately, and ran together to the Temple, with prodigious clamours, and called upon Cæsar by name, and besought him to free them from the tyranny of Florus.”
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