THE PROBLEM

The Roman emperor Augustus created the province of Judaea in a.d. 6 by subjecting to direct Roman rule the central part of the domain once ruled by the Jewish king Herod the Great. Herod's kingdom had proved unruly on his death in 4 b.c. when the widespread resentment he had evoked was able to surface, and a series of revolts then had been suppressed only after intervention by the Roman governor of Syria. Herod's son Archelaus had nonetheless been permitted to inherit control of the area around Jerusalem, although he was granted the title merely of ethnarch. But by a.d. 6 even this appointment no longer seemed satisfactory in the eyes of his Roman patron. Archelaus was sent into exile in Gaul, and Judaea was incorporated into the Roman empire.

The following sixty years witnessed many crises in the relationship of the Jewish population to the Roman government. They ended with the great war of a.d. 66–70 which is the main subject of this book. Hostility to Rome was shown from the foundation of the province. Violent opposition to the imposition of a census was quelled only with difficulty, and in the following years a variety of issues led to frequent riots and demonstrations.