Siege of Jerusalem (70 CE)

For the siege by Nebuchadnezzar that led to the destruction of the First Temple, see Siege of Jerusalem (587 BC). For other sieges upon the city of Jerusalem, see Siege of Jerusalem.

Siege of Jerusalem (70 CE)
Part of the First Jewish–Roman War

Destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by Francesco Hayez. Oil on canvas, 1867.
Date14 April – 8 September 70 CE
(4 months, 3 weeks and 4 days)
Location
Jerusalem, Judaea
31°46′41″N 35°14′9″E / 31.77806°N 35.23583°E / 31.77806; 35.23583
Result Roman victory
Territorial
changes		 Roman rule of Jerusalem restored
Belligerents
Roman Empire

Remnants of the Judean provisional government

Zealots
Commanders and leaders
Titus
Julius Alexander		 Simon bar Giora Executed John of Giscala (POW)
Eleazar ben Simon †
Strength
70,000 15,000–20,000 10,000
Casualties and losses
Unknown 15,000–20,000 10,000
Part of a series on
Jerusalem
City of David 1000 BCE
Second Temple Period 538 BCE–70 CE
Aelia Capitolina 130–325 CE
Byzantine 325–638 CE
Early Muslim 638–1099
Crusader 1099–1187
Late Medieval 1187–1517
Ottoman 1517–1917
British Mandate 1917–1948
Modern period
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    The siege of Jerusalem of 70 CE was the decisive event of the First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE), in which the Roman army led by future emperor Titus besieged Jerusalem, the center of Jewish rebel resistance in the Roman province of Judaea. Following a five-month siege, the Romans destroyed the city, including the Second Jewish Temple.[1][2][3]

    In April 70 CE, three days before Passover, the Roman army started besieging Jerusalem.[4][5] The city had been taken over by several rebel factions following a period of massive unrest and the collapse of a short-lived provisional government. Within three weeks, the Romans broke the first two walls of the city, but a stubborn rebel standoff prevented them from penetrating the third and thickest wall.[4][6] According to Josephus, a contemporary historian and the main source for the war, the city was ravaged by murder, famine, and cannibalism.[7]

    On Tisha B'Av, 70 CE (August 30),[8] Roman forces overwhelmed the defenders and set fire to the Temple.[9] Resistance continued for another month, but eventually the upper and lower parts of the city were taken as well, and the city was burned to the ground. Titus spared only the three towers of the Herodian citadel as a testimony to the city's former might.[10][11] The siege had a major toll on human life, with many people being killed and enslaved, and large parts of the city destroyed. This victory gave the Flavian dynasty legitimacy to claim control over the empire. A triumph was held in Rome to celebrate the victory over the Jews, with two triumphal arches erected to commemorate it, including the Arch of Titus, which still stands today. The treasures looted from the Temple were put on display.[7]

    The destruction of Jerusalem marked a major turning point in Jewish history.[7][12][13] The loss of the mother-city and Second Temple necessitated a reshaping of Jewish culture to ensure its survival. With sacrificial worship no longer possible, Jewish practices shifted to prayer, Torah study, and synagogue gatherings. According to Rabbinic tradition, Yohanan ben Zakkai escaped Jerusalem during the siege and secured Roman permission to establish a study center in Yavneh,[13][14][15] This event was foundational in the development of Rabbinic Judaism, which emerged from Pharisaic traditions and eventually became the mainstream form of Judaism.[2][7][16] Jewish sects such as the Sadducees and Essenes faded into obscurity,[17] while surviving followers of Jesus of Nazareth continued to spread his teachings, leading to the rise of Christianity as a new, separate religion.[7] After the war, Legio X Fretensis established a military camp on Jerusalem's ruins.[18][19] the city was later re-founded as the Roman colony of Aelia Capitolina. Foreign cults were introduced and Jews were forbidden entry.[20][21][22] This is often seen as a catalyst for the Bar Kokhba revolt.[23][24]

    1. ^ Weksler-Bdolah, Shlomit (2019). Aelia Capitolina – Jerusalem in the Roman period: in light of archaeological research. Brill. p. 3. ISBN 978-90-04-41707-6. OCLC 1170143447. The historical description is consistent with the archeological finds. Collapses of massive stones from the walls of the Temple Mount were exposed lying over the Herodian street running along the Western Wall of the Temple Mount. The residential buildings of the Ophel and the Upper City were destroyed by great fire. The large urban drainage channel and the Pool of Siloam in the Lower City silted up and ceased to function, and in many places the city walls collapsed. [...] Following the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 CE, a new era began in the city's history. The Herodian city was destroyed and a military camp of the Tenth Roman Legion established on part of the ruins. In c. 130 CE, the Roman emperor Hadrian founded a new city in place of Herodian Jerusalem next to the military camp. He honored the city with the status of a colony and named it Aelia Capitolina and possibly also forbidding Jews from entering its boundaries
    2. ^ a b Westwood, Ursula (1 April 2017). "A History of the Jewish War, AD 66–74". Journal of Jewish Studies. 68 (1): 189–193. doi:10.18647/3311/jjs-2017. ISSN 0022-2097.
    3. ^ Ben-Ami, Doron; Tchekhanovets, Yana (2011). "The Lower City of Jerusalem on the Eve of Its Destruction, 70 CE: A View From Hanyon Givati". Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research. 364: 61–85. doi:10.5615/bullamerschoorie.364.0061. ISSN 0003-097X. S2CID 164199980.
    4. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Schäfer was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
    5. ^ Cite error: The named reference War of the Jews was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
    6. ^ Si Shepperd, The Jewish Revolt AD 66–74, (Osprey Publishing), p. 62. [ISBN missing]
    7. ^ a b c d e Maclean Rogers, Guy (2021). For the Freedom of Zion: The Great Revolt of Jews against Romans, 66–74 CE. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. pp. 3–5. ISBN 978-0-300-26256-8. OCLC 1294393934.
    8. ^ Bunson, Matthew (1995). A Dictionary of the Roman Empire. Oxford University Press. p. 212. ISBN 978-0-19-510233-8.
    9. ^ The destruction of both the First and Second Temples is still mourned annually during the Jewish fast of Tisha B'Av.
    10. ^ Rocca (2008), pp. 51–52.
    11. ^ Goodman, Martin (2008). Rome and Jerusalem: The Clash of Ancient Civilizations. Penguin. p. 25. ISBN 978-0-14-029127-8. OCLC 1016414322. The capitulation of the rest of Jerusalem was rapid. Those parts of the lower city already under Roman control were deliberately set on fire. The erection of new towers to break down the walls of the upper city was completed on 7 Elul (in mid-August), and the troops forced their way in. By 8 Elul the whole city was in Roman hands – and in ruins. In recompense for the ferocious fighting they had been required to endure, the soldiers were given free rein to loot and kill, until eventually Titus ordered that the city be razed to the ground, 'leaving only the loftiest of the towers, Phasael, Hippicus and Mariamme, and the portion of the wall enclosing the city on the west: the latter as an encampment for the garrison that was to remain, and the towers to indicate to posterity the nature of the city and of the strong defences which had yet yielded to Roman prowess. All the rest of the wall encompassing the city was so completely levelled to the ground as to leave future visitors to the spot no ground for believing that it had ever been inhabited.'
    12. ^ Neusner, Jacob (28 November 2017), Hinnells, John (ed.), "Judaism in a Time of Crisis: Four Responses to the Destruction of the Second Temple", Neusner on Judaism, Routledge, pp. 399–413, doi:10.4324/9781351152761-20, ISBN 978-1-351-15276-1, retrieved 22 May 2022
    13. ^ a b Karesh, Sara E. (2006). Encyclopedia of Judaism. Facts On File. ISBN 978-1-78785-171-9. OCLC 1162305378. Until the modern period, the destruction of the Temple was the most cataclysmic moment in the history of the Jewish people. Without the Temple, the Sadducees no longer had any claim to authority, and they faded away. The sage Yochanan ben Zakkai, with permission from Rome, set up the outpost of Yavneh to continue develop of Pharisaic, or rabbinic, Judaism.
    14. ^ Katz, Steven T., ed. (2006). The Cambridge History of Judaism: Volume 4: The Late Roman-Rabbinic Period. Vol. 4. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 268. doi:10.1017/chol9780521772488. ISBN 978-0-521-77248-8. Under the leadership of R. Yohanan ben Zakkai and his circle at Yavneh, Judaism sought to reconstitute itself and find a new equilibrium in the face of the disaster of 70.
    15. ^ Stemberger, Guenter (2003), Neusner, Jacob; Avery-Peck, Alan J. (eds.), "The Formation of Rabbinic Judaism, 70–640 CE", The Blackwell Companion to Judaism (1 ed.), Wiley, pp. 78–79, doi:10.1002/9780470758014.ch5, ISBN 978-1-57718-058-6, retrieved 2 July 2024
    16. ^ Goldenberg, Robert (1977). "The Broken Axis: Rabbinic Judaism and the Fall of Jerusalem". Journal of the American Academy of Religion. XLV (3): 353. doi:10.1093/jaarel/xlv.3.353. ISSN 0002-7189.
    17. ^ Karesh, Sara E. (2006). Encyclopedia of Judaism. Facts On File. ISBN 978-1-78785-171-9. OCLC 1162305378. Until the modern period, the destruction of the Temple was the most cataclysmic moment in the history of the Jewish people. Without the Temple, the Sadducees no longer had any claim to authority, and they faded away. The sage Yochanan ben Zakkai, with permission from Rome, set up the outpost of Yavneh to continue develop of Pharisaic, or rabbinic, Judaism.
    18. ^ Weksler-Bdolah, Shlomit (9 December 2019), "The Camp of the Legion X Fretensis", Aelia Capitolina – Jerusalem in the Roman Period, Brill, pp. 19–50, doi:10.1163/9789004417076_003, ISBN 978-90-04-41707-6, S2CID 214005509, retrieved 19 May 2022, After the destruction of the Herodian city of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 CE, a military camp of the Tenth Roman Legion was established on part of the ruins to guard the former center of the revolt. This is clearly stated by Josephus (Jos. BJ, 7:1–5, 17; Vita, 422); it can be understood from the text of a diploma of 93 CE: "(veterani) qui militaverunt Hierosolymnis in legione X Fretense", and it is also clear from epigraphic finds from the town. A bulk of military small finds recovered from several sites around the Old City indicates the presence of the XFretensis in Jerusalem
    19. ^ Geva, Hillel (1984). "The Camp of the Tenth Legion in Jerusalem: An Archaeological Reconsideration". Israel Exploration Journal. 34 (4): 239–254. ISSN 0021-2059. JSTOR 27925952.
    20. ^ Peter Schäfer (2003). The Bar Kokhba war reconsidered: new perspectives on the second Jewish revolt against Rome. Mohr Siebeck. pp. 36–. ISBN 978-3-16-148076-8. Retrieved 4 December 2011.
    21. ^ Lehmann, Clayton Miles (2007). "Palestine: History". The On-line Encyclopedia of the Roman Provinces. The University of South Dakota. Archived from the original on 10 March 2008. Retrieved 18 April 2007.
    22. ^ Cohen, Shaye J. D. (1996). "Judaism to Mishnah: 135–220 AD". In Hershel Shanks (ed.). Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism: A Parallel History of their Origins and Early Development. Washington DC: Biblical Archaeology Society. p. 196.
    23. ^ Shlomit Weksler-Bdolah (2019). Aelia Capitolina – Jerusalem in the Roman Period: In Light of Archaeological Research. Brill. pp. 54–58. ISBN 978-90-04-41707-6.
    24. ^ Jacobson, David. "The Enigma of the Name Īliyā (= Aelia) for Jerusalem in Early Islam". Revision 4. Retrieved 23 December 2020.