From the middle of the first century AD, a succession of Roman procurators – 11Antonius Felix (52-60), 08Porcius Festus (60-61), Lucceius Albinus (62-64) and Gessius Florus (64-66) – were all actively hostile towards the Jews. A group of Jewish revolutionaries known as the Sicarii (dagger men) promoted rebellion, killing Romans and Roman sympathisers.
In April 65 at Caesarea, a coastal town between Tel Aviv to the south and Haifa to the north in Israel, an ethnic riot erupted between Jews and Greeks. The quarrel was over civic rights with the Greeks, believing (rightly) that Caesarea had been founded as a gentile city, wanting the Jews to remain disenfranchised. Delegations were sent to Rome and Nero decided in favour of the Greeks. The Jews, angered by this response returned home, determined to keep the quarrel alive.
In spring 66 Florus angered the Jews by removing a large sum of money from the Temple treasury in Jerusalem. The reason he gave was that Jewish payment of tax was seriously in arrears, but the Jews saw the seizure as an act of theft. A fierce street battle developed and Florus, seeing that his forces were too weak to subdue the masses, withdrew to Caesarea.
Eleazar, the son of the high priest Ananias (r.46-52), ceased sacrifices for the emperor at the Temple. This amounted to a declaration of revolt against the Romans. In the internal Jewish struggle that ensued in the city, Eleazar appeared as the leader of the militant Zealot faction, who fought against the moderates willing to come to terms with the Romans. He and his followers seized the Temple Mount and set fire to public buildings and records. Bloody battles took place in many other cities inhabited by Jews and gentiles.
Jewish forces led by the Sicarii leader Menahem ben Judah captured the Dead Sea fortress of Masada. Returning to Jerusalem he assassinated Ananias and presented himself as the absolute ruler of the revolutionary forces. When he entered the Temple he was attacked and killed. by Eleazar and his followers. Eleazar himself was soon deposed and sent to command a small force in Idumaea (southern Jordan)
Cestius Gallus (d.67), the legate of Syria, marched a legion and six thousand auxiliaries into Judaea and pacified the Galilee (northern Israel) but was repulsed from Jerusalem and harassed into a humiliating retreat.
In spring 67 Nero put Vespasian in charge of the war. He took over the legions V Macedonica and X Fretensis in Syria, and sent his son Titus to Alexandria to mobilise the XV Apollinaris. He then moved down the coast to Acre/Ptolemais. On arrival he was greeted and given a promise of support by envoys from the Galilean town of Sepphoris, a village about ten miles southeast of Ptolemais.
In May 67 he advanced about ten miles eastwards across the border of Galilee to Gabara. In the assault that followed he took no prisoners and razed the village as a message to the rebels as to the cost of resistance. In the face of this onslaught the main Jewish field army – camped at Garis to the south under the command of Joseph ben Matityahu (=08Flavius Josephus; c.58; fl.66-c.95; The Jewish War) – deserted in droves to the safety of fortified strongpoints.
Important to the defence of Galilee was Jotapata, a fortified town located midway between Gabara and Sepphoris. When it finally fell after a six-week siege, Vespasian along the western shore of the Sea of Galilee where Tiberias immediately surrendered and Tarichaea fell to assault by Titus. After this, most of the cities had no fight left in them. Vespasian tried to parley for peace but was forced to do battle at Gamala and Gischala (NE and NW of the Sea of Galilee respectively).
In June 68 Vespasian arrived in Jericho (NW of the Dead Sea). The rebel strength was now confined to Jerusalem (SW of Jericho) and the fortresses to the east – Machaerus, Masada and Herodium. Vespasian began to blockade Jerusalem but on learning of Nero’s demise (9 June) he left the battlefield and turned the army over to Titus.
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