Josephus Document

Excerpt from "The Jewish War" by Josephus

The Jews of Judea actively resented Roman rule and on several occasions rose in revolt only to be subdued by the Romans. In the year 70 the Romans, led by Titus (son of Emperor Vespasian) crushed a major revolt and sacked the city of Jerusalem, destroying the great temple. Agrippa II, king of Judea, appealed to the people of Jerusalem to refrain from rising in revolt against the great power of Rome.

"Had I perceived that you were all zealously disposed to go to war with the Romans, and that the purer and more sincere part of the people did not wish to live in peace, I would not have come out to you, nor been so bold as to give you advice; for all discourses that tend to persuade men to do what they ought to do are useless when those that listen are fixed to do the contrary. But because some are earnest to go to war because they are young, and without experience of the miseries it brings, and because some are in favor of war out of an unreasonable expectation of regaining their liberty, and because others hope to survive the slaughter and in the confusion of the war to gain the property of those that do not survive, and are therefore earnestly bent upon revolt, I have thought proper to get you all together, and to say to you what I think to be for your advantage. So the former may grow wiser, and change their minds, and that the best men may come to no harm by the ill conduct of some others. And let not any one be angry against me, in case what they hear me say does not please them; for as to those that are resolved upon a revolt, it will still be in their power to retain the same sentiments after my exhortation is over. But unless you will all keep silent, my words will fail to reach those that are willing to listen to me.

‘I am well aware that many make a dramatic exclamation concerning the injuries that have been brought upon you by the Romans, and acclaim the glorious advantages of liberty; but before I begin to inquire which of you feel that you must go to war, and enlighten you about your supposed enemy, I shall first separate those pretenses that are by some connected together; for if you aim to avenge yourselves on those that have done you injury, why do you pretend this to be a war for recovering your liberty? If you think all servitude intolerable, to what purpose serve your complaint against your particular governors? For even if they treated you with moderation, it would still be equally an unworthy thing to be in servitude.

‘Consider now the several cases that may be supposed and how little occasion there is for going to war. Your first occasion is the accusations you have to make against the Roman procurators; now here you ought to be submissive to those in authority, and not give them any provocation; but when you reproach men greatly for small offenses, you excite those whom you reproach to be your adversaries; for this will only make them leave off hurting you privately, and with some degree of modesty, and to lay what you have waste openly. Now nothing so much damps the force of strokes as bearing them with patience; and the quietness of those who are injured diverts the injurious persons from afflicting. But let us take it for granted that the Roman ministers are injurious to you, and are incurably severe; yet are they not all the Romans who thus injure you; nor hath Caesar, against whom you are going to make war, injured you: it is not by their command that any wicked governor is sent to you; for they who are in the west cannot see those that are in the east; nor indeed is it easy for them there even to hear what is done in these parts. Now it is absurd to make war with a great many for the sake of one, to do so with such mighty people for a small cause; and this when these people are not able to know of what you complain: nay, such crimes as we complain of may soon be corrected, for the same procurator will not continue for ever; and probable it is that the successors will come with more moderate inclinations. But as for war, if it be once begun, it is not easily laid down again, nor borne without calamities coming therewith.

‘However, as to the desire of recovering your liberty, it is unseasonable to indulge it so late; whereas you ought to have labored earnestly in old time that you might never have lost it; for the first experience of slavery was hard to be endured, and the struggle that you might never have been subject to it would have been just; but that slave who hath been once brought into subjection, and then runs away, is rather a refractory slave than a lover of liberty; for it was then the proper time for doing all that was possible, that you might never have admitted the Romans [into your city], when Pompey came first into the country. But so it was, that our ancestors and their kings, who were in much better circumstances than we are, both as to money, and strong bodies, and [valiant] souls, did not bear the onset of a small body of the Roman army. And yet you, who have now accustomed yourselves to obedience from one generation to another, and who are so much inferior to those who first submitted, in your circumstances will venture to oppose the entire empire of the Romans.

‘While those Athenians, who, in order to preserve the liberty of Greece, did once set fire to their own city; who pursued Xerxes, that proud prince, when he sailed upon the land, and walked upon the sea, and could not be contained by the seas, but conducted such an army as was too broad for Europe; and made him run away like a fugitive in a single ship, and brake so great a part of Asia at the Lesser Salamis; are yet at this time servants to the Romans; and those injunctions which are sent from Italy become laws to the principal governing city of Greece. Those Lacedemonians (Spartans) also who got the great victories at Thermopylae and Platea, and had Agesilaus [for their king], and searched every corner of Asia, are contented to admit the same lords. Those Macedonians also, who still fancy what great men their Philip and Alexander were, and see that the latter had promised them the empire over the world, these bear so great a change, and pay their obedience to those whom fortune hath advanced in their stead. Moreover, ten thousand ether nations there are who had greater reason than we to claim their entire liberty, and yet do submit. You are the only people who think it a disgrace to be servants to those to whom all the world hath submitted.

‘What sort of an army do you rely on? What are the arms you depend on? Where is your fleet, that may seize upon the Roman seas? And where are those treasures which may be sufficient for your undertakings? Do you suppose, I pray you, that you are to make war with the Egyptians, and with the Arabians? Will you not carefully reflect upon the Roman Empire? Will you not estimate your own weakness? Hath not your army been often beaten even by your neighboring nations, while the power of the Romans is invincible in all parts of the habitable earth? Nay, rather they seek for somewhat still beyond that; for all Euphrates is not a sufficient boundary for them on the east side, nor the Danube on the north; and for their southern limit, Libya hath been searched over by them, as far as countries uninhabited, as is Cadiz their limit on the west; nay, indeed, they have sought for another habitable earth beyond the ocean, and have carried their arms as far as such British islands as were never known before. What therefore do you pretend to? Are you richer than the Gauls, stronger than the Germans, wiser than the Greeks, more numerous than all men upon the habitable earth? What confidence is it that elevates you to oppose the Romans?

‘Perhaps it will be said, ‘It is hard to endure slavery’. Yes; but how much harder is this to the Greeks, who were esteemed the noblest of all people under the sun! These, though they inhabit in a large country, are in subjection to six bundles of Roman rods. It is the same case with the Macedonians, who have a more just reason to claim their liberty than you have. What is the case of five hundred cities of Asia? Do they not submit to a single governor, and to the consular bundle of rods? What need I speak of the Henlochi, and Colchi and the nation of Tauri, those that inhabit the Bosphorus, and the nations about Pontus, and Meotis, who formerly knew not so much as a lord of their own, but are now subject to three thousand armed men, and where forty long ships keep the sea in peace, which before was not navigable, and very tempestuous? How strong a plea may Bithynia, and Cappadocia, and the people of Pamphylia, the Lycians, and Cilicians, put in for liberty! But they are made tributary without an army.

‘What are the circumstances of the Thracians, whose country extends in breadth five days' journey, and in length seven, and is of a much more harsh constitution, and much more defensible, than yours, and by the rigor of its cold sufficient to keep off armies from attacking them? Do not they submit to two thousand men of the Roman garrisons? Are not the Illyrians, who inhabit the country adjoining, as far as Dalmatia and the Danube, governed by barely two legions by which also they put a stop to the incursions of the Daeians? And for the Dalmatians, who have made such frequent insurrections in order to regain their liberty, and who could never before be so thoroughly subdued, but that they always gathered their forces together again, revolted, yet are they now very quiet under one Roman legion.

‘Moreover, if advantages might provoke any people to revolt, the Gauls might do it best of all, as being so thoroughly walled round by nature; on the east side by the Alps, on the north by the river Rhine, on the south by the Pyrenean mountains, and on the west by the ocean. Now although these Gauls have such obstacles before them to prevent any attack upon them, and have no fewer than three hundred and five nations among them, nay have, as one may say, the fountains of domestic happiness within themselves, and send out plentiful streams of happiness over almost the whole world, these bear to be tributary to the Romans, and derive their prosperous condition from them; and they undergo this, not because they are of effeminate minds, or because they are of an ignoble stock, as having borne a war of eighty years in order to preserve their liberty; but by reason of the great regard they have to the power of the Romans, and their good fortune, which is of greater efficacy than their arms. These Gauls, therefore, are kept in servitude by twelve hundred soldiers, which are hardly so many as are their cities!

‘Nor hath the gold dug out of the mines of Spain been sufficient for the support of a war to preserve their liberty, nor could their vast distance from the Romans by land and by sea do it; nor could the martial tribes of the Lusitanians and Spaniards escape; no more could the ocean, with its tide, which yet was terrible to the ancient inhabitants. Nay, the Romans have extended their arms beyond the Pillars of Hercules, and have walked among the clouds, upon the Pyrenean Mountains, and have subdued these nations. And one legion is a sufficient guard for these people, although they were so hard to be conquered, and at a distance so remote from Rome.

‘Who is there among you that hath not heard of the great number of the Germans? You have, to be sure, yourselves seen them to be strong and tall, and that frequently, since the Romans have them among their captives everywhere; yet these Germans, who dwell in an immense country, who have minds greater than their bodies, and a soul that despises death, and who are in rage more fierce than wild beasts, have the Rhine for the boundary of their enterprises, and are tamed by eight Roman legions. Such of them as were taken captive became their servants; and the rest were obliged to save themselves by flight.

‘You, who depend on the walls of Jerusalem, consider what defenses the Britons had. The Romans sailed to them and subdued them while they were encompassed by the ocean, and inhabited an island that is not less than the [size of this] habitable earth; and four legions are sufficient to guard so large an island. And why should I say more about that, when even the Parthians, that most warlike race of men, rulers of so many nations and protected by such mighty forces, send hostages to the Romans. Moreover, on Italian soil the aristocrats of the East humbly submit for the sake of peace.

‘Now when almost all people under the sun submit to the Roman arms, will you be the only people that make war against them? And this without regarding the fate of the Carthaginians, who boasted of the great Hannibal and the glory of their Phoenician ancestry, were defeated by the hand of Scipio. Nor indeed have the Cyrenians, derived from the Lacedemonians, nor the Marmaridite, a nation extended as far as the regions uninhabitable for lack of water, nor have the Syrtes, a place terrible to such as barely hear it described, the Nasamons and Moors, and the immense multitude of the Numidians, been able to put a stop to the Roman valor. As for the third part of the habitable earth, whose nations are so many that it is not easy to number them, and which is bounded by the Atlantic Sea and the Pillars of Hercules, and feeds an innumerable multitude of Ethiopians, as far as the Red Sea, these have the Romans subdued entirely. And besides the annual fruits of the earth, which maintain the multitude of the Romans for eight months in the year, these peoples pay tribute of every kind, and willingly submit to taxation for the needs of the Empire. Nor do they, like you, esteem such injunctions a disgrace to them, although they have but one Roman legion in their midst. And indeed what occasion is there for showing you the power of the Romans over remote countries, when it is so easy to learn it from Egypt, in your neighborhood? This country is extended as far as the Ethiopians, and Arabia the Happy, and borders upon India; it hath seven millions five hundred thousand men, besides the inhabitants of Alexandria, as may be learned from the revenue of the poll tax; yet it is not ashamed to submit to the Roman government, although it hath Alexandria as a grand temptation to a revolt, by reason it is so full of people and of riches, and is besides exceeding large, its length being thirty furlongs, and its breadth no less than ten; and it pays more tribute to the Romans in one month than you do in a year; nay, besides what it pays in money, it sends corn to Rome that supports it for four months [in the year]: it is also walled round on all sides, either by almost impassable deserts, or seas that have no havens, or by rivers, or by lakes; yet have none of these things been found too strong for the Roman good fortune; however, two legions that lie in that city are a bridle both for the more remote parts of Egypt, and for the parts inhabited by the more noble Macedonians.

‘Where then are those people who will help you in this revolt? Will they come from the parts of the world that are uninhabited? For you should know that all that are in the habitable earth are [under the] Romans. Unless any of you extend his hopes as far as beyond the Euphrates, and suppose that those of your own nation that dwell in Adiabene will come to your assistance; but certainly these will not embarrass themselves with an unjustifiable war, nor, if they should follow such ill advice, will the Parthians permit them so to do; for it is their concern to maintain the truce that is between them and the Romans, and they will be supposed to break the covenants between them, if any under their government march against the Romans. What remains, therefore, is that you have recourse to Divine assistance; but God is already on the side of the Romans; for it is impossible that so vast an empire should be settled without God's providence.

‘Think about how difficult it would be to preserve the zealous observations of your religious customs, which are hard to be observed even when you fight a feeble opponent; and how can you then hope for God's assistance, when, by being forced to transgress his law, you will make him turn his face from you? If you do observe the custom of the Sabbath days with its complete cessation of activity, you will easily be crushed, as were your forefathers by Pompey, who was busiest in his siege on those days on which the besieged rested. But if in time of war you transgress your ancestral law I do not see what you have left to fight for, since your desire is that none of your ancestral customs should be broken. And how will you call upon God to assist you, when you are voluntarily transgressing against his religion?

‘Now all men that go to war do it either as depending on divine or on human assistance; but since your revolt will cut off both those assistances, those that are for going to war choose evident destruction. What prevents you from slaying your own children and wives with your own hands, and burning this most excellent native city (Jerusalem) of yours? By such madness you would at least avoid the shame of defeat. It is wise, O my friends, it is wise, while the vessel is still in the harbor, to foresee the impending storm, and not to set sail out of the port into the middle of the hurricane. For we justly pity those who fall into great misfortunes without fore-seeing them; but for him who rushes into manifest ruin, he gains reproaches [instead of sympathy].

‘But certainly none of you can pretend that you can enter into a restrained war against the Romans or that when they have got you under their power, they will treat you with moderation and will not burn your holy city as an example to others, and utterly destroy your whole nation. Those of you who shall survive the war will not be able to find a place to flee, since all men have the Romans for their lords already, or are afraid they shall have hereafter. Nay, indeed, the danger concerns not only those Jews that dwell here, but those of them which dwell in other cities also; for there is no people upon the habitable earth which have not some portion of you among them, whom your enemies will slay, in case you go to war; and so every city which has Jews in it will be filled with slaughter for your sake, and those who slay them will be pardoned. And if such slaughter does not take place, consider how wicked a thing it is to take arms against those that are so kind to you. Have pity, therefore, if not on your children and wives, then upon this your metropolis, and its sacred walls; spare the temple, and preserve the holy house, with its holy furniture, for yourselves; for if the Romans get you under their power, they will no longer keep their hands off them when their former generosity and abstinence shall have been so ungratefully repaid. I call to witness your sanctuary, and the holy angels of God, and this country common to us all, that I have not kept back anything that is for your safety; and if you will follow that advice which you ought to do, you will have that peace which will be common to you and to me; but if you indulge your passion for war, you will go without me to your doom."

Use the above speech and information from your book and lectures to answer the following questions:

Can you identify reasons that the Jews of Judea might resent foreign rule and rebel against Roman authority?
According to Agrippa, why won’t God help them in their revolt? In what ways will they offend God by going to war?
Why does Agrippa argue that the time for revolt has long passed and that the real opportunity would have been at the time of Pompey?
Who else will pay the price for the Jewish revolt? What does this reference tell us about the status of Jews at the time?
If you were a resident of Jerusalem listening to this speech, what would you have thought about your chances of success against the Romans? If the odds were stacked so immensely against the Jews, why do you think they still revolted?