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Author	: Bill Kochman
Publish	: Jun. 14, 2025
Update	: Jun. 14, 2025
Parts	: 25

Synopsis:




Continuing our discussion from part four, with the news that a 2,500-man army was arriving from Jerusalem, four Galilean cities chose to revolt against Josephus: Sepphoris, Tiberias, Gamala, and Gischala, the latter being John's hometown. But once again, Josephus writes in Book 2 Chapter 21 that he was able to rout them. However, their defeat left John trapped within Gischala for fear of Josephus. But then Tiberias again chose to rebel against Josephus. In fact, they tried to get Herod Agrippa II to come to their aid, which the king did not do. When Roman horsemen appeared, apparently out of fear, the people expelled Josephus from their city. It appears that he then returned to Taricheae, which was his base of operations.

In order to defeat the revolt which had occurred in Tiberias, Josephus developed a strategy whereby he convinced the people of Tiberias that he had a huge army of two hundred and thirty ships on the Sea of Galilee -- a.k.a. Gennesaret or Kinneret -- which were ready to pounce on Tiberias. Thus, through some very shrewd trickery, not only was he able to get the people of Tiberias to surrender, but he also carried off hundreds of their primary rulers, as well as two thousand other people of the general population, to Taricheae, where they were put in prison.

Regarding the leader of the revolt, Josephus informs us that both of his hands were cut off. Shortly after that, Josephus was also able to regain control of the other Galilean cities which had revolted against him. Through these victories, the cities of Galilee were once again quiet, and were thus able to prepare for the coming war against the Romans. Thus, at the conclusion of Chapter 21, Josephus writes as follows:

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"So he [Josephus] sailed to Tiberias with haste, and kept at such a distance from the city, that it was not easy for the people to see the vessels, and ordered that the empty vessels should float up and down there, while himself, who had but seven of his guards with him, and those unarmed also, went so near as to be seen; but when his adversaries, who were still reproaching him, saw him from the walls, they were so astonished that they supposed all the ships were full of armed men, and threw down their arms, and by signals of intercession they besought him to spare the city.

Upon this Josephus threatened them terribly, and reproached them, that when they were the first that took up arms against the Romans, they should spend their force beforehand in civil dissensions, and do what their enemies desired above all things; and that besides they should endeavour so hastily to seize upon him who took care of their safety, and had not been ashamed to shut the gates of their city against him that built their walls; that, however, he would admit of any intercessors from them that might make some excuse for them, and with whom he would make such agreements as might be for the city's security. Hereupon ten of the most potent men of Tiberias came down to him presently, and when he had taken them into one of his vessels he ordered them to be carried a great way off from the city. He then commanded that fifty others of their senate, such as were men of the greatest eminence, should come to him, that they also might give him some security on their behalf. After which, under one new pretence or another, he called forth others, one after another, to make the leagues between them. Pie then gave order to the masters of those vessels which he had thus filled, to sail away immediately for Taricheae, and to confine those men in the prison there; till at length he took all their senate, consisting of six hundred persons, and about two thousand of the populace, and carried them away to Taricheae.

And when the rest of the people cried out, that it was one Clitus that was the chief author of this revolt, they desired him to spend his anger upon him [only;] but Josephus, whose intention it was to slay nobody, commanded one Levins, belonging to his guards, to go out of the vessel in order to cut off both Clitus' hands; yet was Levins afraid to go out by himself alone, to such a large body of enemies, and refused to go. Now Clitus saw that Josephus was in a great passion in the ship, and ready to leap out of it, in order to execute the punishment himself; he begged therefore from the shore, that he would leave him one of his hands, which Josephus agreed to, upon condition that he would himself cut off the other hand; accordingly, he drew his sword, and with his right hand cut off his left, so great was the fear he was in of Josephus himself. And thus he took the people of Tiberias prisoners, and recovered the city again with empty ships and seven of his guard. Moreover, a few days afterward he took Gischala, which had revolted with the people of Sepphoris, and gave his soldiers leave to plunder it; yet did he get all the plunder together, and restored it to the inhabitants, and the like he did to the inhabitants of Sepphoris and Tiberias. For when he had subdued those cities, he had a mind, by letting them be plundered, to give them some good instruction, while at the same time he regained their good-will, by restoring them their money again."

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At the beginning of Book 2 Chapter 22, Josephus again turns his attention to ongoing preparations for war in Jerusalem. He writes that under the leadership of Ananus the high priest and other prominent, powerful leaders, the walls of Jerusalem were repaired, and weapons and armor were greatly multiplied. Yet while some of the war-prone leaders prepared for war, as we discussed in earlier parts of this series, the common folk were of an entirely different spirit. They were in fact very downcast and lamented, because they realized the inevitability of what would soon befall them. I can't help but think that some of them must have recalled Jesus' own warnings from over three decades earlier. Josephus in fact describes the city as "a place doomed to destruction." Furthermore, he notes that omens were observed which "were understood to be forerunners of evils", as we see by the following excerpt:

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"Now in Jerusalem the high priest Ananus, and as many of the men of power as were not in the interest of the Romans, both repaired the walls, and made a great many warlike instruments, insomuch that in all parts of the city darts and all sorts of armour were upon the anvil. Although the multitude of the young men were engaged in exercises, without any regularity, and all places were full of tumultuous doings; but the moderate sort were exceedingly sad, and a great many there were who, out of the prospects they had of the calamities that were coming upon them, made great lamentations. There were also such omens observed as were understood to be forerunners of evils, by such as loved peace, but were by those that kindled the war interpreted so as to suit their own inclinations; and the very state of the city, even before the Romans came against it, was that of a place doomed to destruction."

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Josephus then informs his readers that Ananus the high priest temporarily put war preparations on hold in order to turn his attention to the growing problem with the seditionists -- and in particular, with the Zealots -- which included the violent dagger-wielding Sicarii. We then learn about Simon, the son of Gioras, who gathered a great number of the innovators -- that is to say, the seditionists -- and began to ravage and plunder the toparchy of Acrabbenne, where Simon ruled as a tyrant. Ananus then sent an army to put down Simon and his men, who then retreated to the fortress of Masada -- where other robbers were also already holed up -- from which they they plundered Idumea, also known as Edom. It is with these events that Book 2 of "The Wars of the Jews" concludes, as we see by the following excerpt:

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"However, Ananus' concern was this, to lay aside, for a while, the preparations for the war, and to persuade THE SEDITIOUS to consult their own interest, and to restrain the madness of those that had the name of ZEALOTS; but their violence was too hard for him, and what end he came to we shall relate hereafter.

But as for the Acrabbenne toparchy, Simon, the son of Gioras, got a great number of those that were FOND OF INNOVATIONS together, and betook himself to ravage the country; nor did he only harass the rich men's houses, but tormented their bodies, and appeared openly and beforehand to affect tyranny in his government. And when an army was sent against him by Ananus, and the other rulers, he and his band retired to THE ROBBERS that were at Masada, and stayed there, and plundered the country of Idumea with them, till both Ananus and his other adversaries were slain, and until the rulers of that country were so afflicted with the multitude of those that were slain, and with the continual ravage of what they had, that they raised an army, and put garrisons into the villages, to secure them from those insults; and in this state were the affairs of Judea at that time."

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As you can no doubt see, with each chapter that we read, and each event that we discuss, we draw closer and closer to the events which will ultimately result in the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple compound, as well as in the death of over one million Jews by the time the First Jewish-Roman War has concluded. As we begin reading in Book 3 of the "Wars of the Jews", we discover that Emperor Nero has begun to make the necessary war preparations which will in just a few years time result in the aforementioned eventuality. Upon learning of Cestius Gallus' rather embarrassing defeat at the hands of the Jews, Emperor Nero sent General Vespasian to Syria to take command of the Roman forces there.

For his part, General Vespasian then sent his son, Titus, to Alexandria, Egypt in order to get the fifth and tenth Roman legions which were stationed there. Please note that in this excerpt, the word "Hellespont" is referring to the narrow strait between the Aegean Sea and the Sea of Marmara which separates European Turkey from Asian Turkey. Today it is known as Dardanelles. Consider the following excerpt which is taken from Book 3 Chapter 1:

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"When Nero was informed of the Romans' ill success in Judea, a concealed consternation and terror, as is usual in such cases, fell upon him; although he openly looked very big, and was very angry, and said that what had happened was rather owing to the negligence of the commander, than to any valour of the enemy: and as he thought it fit for him, who bore the burden of the whole empire, to despise such misfortunes, he now pretended so to do, and to have a soul superior to all such sad accidents whatsoever. Yet did the disturbance that was in his soul plainly appear by the solicitude he was in [how to recover his affairs again.]

And as he was deliberating to whom he should commit the care of the east, now it was in so great a commotion, and who might be the best able to punish the Jews for their rebellion, and might prevent the same distemper from seizing upon the neighbouring nations also; he found no one but Vespasian equal to the task, and able to undergo the great burden of so mighty a war, seeing he was growing an old man already in the camp, and from his youth had been exercised in warlike exploits: he was also a man that had long ago pacified the west, and made it subject to the Romans, when it had been put into disorder by the Germans; he had also recovered to them Britain by his arms, which had been little known before; whereby he procured to his father Claudius to have a triumph bestowed on him without any sweat or labour of his own.

So Nero esteemed these circumstances as favourable omens, and saw that Vespasian's age gave him sure experience, and great skill, and that he had his sons [Titus and Domitian] as hostages for his fidelity to himself, and that the flourishing age they were in would make them fit instruments under their father's prudence. Perhaps also there was some interposition of Providence, which was paving the way for Vespasian's being himself emperor afterwards. Upon the whole, he sent this man to take upon him the command of the armies that were in Syria; but this not without great encomiums and flattering compellations, such as necessity required, and such as might mollify him into complaisance. So Vespasian sent his son Titus from Achaia, where he had been with Nero, to Alexandria, to bring back with him from thence the fifth and the tenth legions, while he himself, when he had passed over the Hellespont, came by land into Syria, where he gathered together the Roman forces, with a considerable number of auxiliaries from the kings in that neighbourhood."

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At this point in his narration, Josephus returns to the point in time where the Jews had just defeated Cestius Gallus, as we discussed earlier in this series. We are informed that the Jews were so emboldened, and filled with so much zeal due to their unexpected victory over Cestius Gallus, that they tried to take the war even further by attacking the walled city of Ascalon, which was located sixty-five miles from Jerusalem. However, the captain of the Roman cohort there -- Antonius -- was made aware of the Jews' intentions. Thus, before the Jews arrived, he had removed his calvary to outside the city.

What followed was a total disaster on the part of the Jewish seditionists. The Roman horsemen attacked them from behind so that the Jews -- who were on foot -- were pressed against the walls of the city. Those who managed to escape the immediate slaughter were killed on the open plain. Josephus informs us that ten thousand Jews were slain during that battle. Yet the Jews had not learned their lesson. Thus, having barely healed from that battle, they made a second attempt to take Ascalon. But once again, the Romans were waiting for them, and we are told that eight thousand more Jews were killed.

At this point in Book 3 Chapter 2, Josephus returns to the activities of General Vespasian. We are informed that after meeting up with King Herod Agrippa II and his own forces at Antioch, Syria, their combined armies marched towards the city of Ptolemais. Ptolemais -- which was named by Ptolemy I Soter, who was one of Alexander the Great's four generals and successors -- was a coastal port city in the region of Phoenicia, which itself was a part of the Roman-controlled province of Syria. Today it is known as Acre, Israel. It is mentioned in the following verse in the Book of Acts:

"And when we had finished our course from Tyre, we came to Ptolemais, and saluted the brethren, and abode with them one day."


Upon arriving at Ptolemais, we are informed that the people of the Galilean city of Sepphoris, which was located about twenty-two miles away -- and who had earlier pledged their allegiance to Syrian president Cestius Gallus -- met with Vespasian, and made known to him their desire for peace with the Romans. In fact, they even went so far as to pledge that they would fight against their own Israelite brethren, if it was required of them. As a result, Vespasian gave them "the security of his right hand" -- a common idiom of the day -- and likewise gave them as many horsemen and footmen as they required so as to be able to fight off any incursions by the seditionist Jews. This was a strategic move on Vespasian's part, because Sepphoris was the largest city in Galilee, and its historic capital as well. By the way, the Hebrew name for this city is Zippori. Josephus thus writes as follows:

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"And now Vespasian took along with him his army from Antioch (which is the metropolis of Syria, and without dispute deserves the place of the third city in the habitable earth that was under the Roman empire, both in magnitude, and other marks of prosperity), where he found king Agrippa, with all his forces, waiting for his coming, and marched to Ptolemais. At this city also the inhabitants of Sepphoris of Galilee met him, who were for peace with the Romans. These citizens had before-hand taken care of their own safety, and being sensible of the power of the Romans, they had been with Cestius Gallus, before Vespasian came, and had given their faith to him, and received the security of his right hand, and had received a Roman garrison; and at this time withal they received Vespasian, the Roman general, very kindly, and readily promised that they would assist him against their own countrymen. Now the general delivered them at their desire, as many horsemen and footmen as he thought sufficient to oppose the incursions of the Jews, if they should come against them."

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At this point, we begin Book 3 Chapter 3, which we will be skipping, being as it is a description of Galilee, Samaria, and Judea, which is not necessary insofar as the primary purpose of this series is concerned. But the main point to consider here is that Vespasian and his forces are now in Israel, and the situation can only grow worse for the Jews. Moving up to chapter four, we discover that Josephus makes a move against Sepphoris, but he is repelled by the Romans. It is also in this chapter that we learn that General Vespasian lent the city a thousand horsemen, and six thousand footmen. While the footmen were encamped within the walls of the city, the horsemen were encamped outside on the surrounding plain.

Joseph admits that it was in fact because of his provocation that the Romans treated all of Galilee according to the law of war, and it was filled with blood and fire everywhere. We are told that the Romans burned down surrounding villages on the plain, stole the cattle, and killed anyone who might be capable of fighting against the Romans. Some people were also put into slavery. Thus, it seems quite evident that the First Jewish-Roman War began in earnest. Josephus writes as follows in Book 3 Chapter 4:

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"Now the auxiliaries which were sent to assist the people of Sepphoris, being a thousand horsemen, and six thousand footmen, under Placidus the tribune, pitched their camp in two bodies in the great plain. The foot were put into the city to be a guard to it, but the horse lodged abroad in the camp. These last, by marching continually one way or other, and over-running the parts of the adjoining country, were very troublesome to Josephus and his men; they also plundered all the places that were out of the city's liberty, and intercepted such as durst go abroad. On this account it was that Josephus marched against the city, as hoping to take what he had lately encompassed with a strong wall, before they revolted from the rest of the Galileans, that the Romans would have had much ado to take it; by which means he proved too weak, and failed of his hopes, both as to the forcing the place, and as to his prevailing with the people of Sepphoris to deliver it up to him. By this means he provoked the Romans to treat the country according to the law of war; nor did the Romans, out of the anger they bore at this attempt, leave off either by night or by day, burning the places in the plain, and stealing away the cattle that were in the country, and killing whatsoever appeared capable of lighting perpetually, and leading the weaker people as slaves into captivity; so that Galilee was all over filled with fire and blood; nor was it exempted from any kind of misery and calamity, for the only refuge they had was this, that when they were pursued, they could retire to the cities which had walls built them by Josephus."

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At this point in Josephus' narration, we discover that Titus has arrived from Alexandria, Egypt with both the fifth and the tenth legions, and that he has joined up with his father Vespasian -- who is over the fifteenth legion -- at Ptolemais. But that is not all. We also learn that this formidable army is joined by additional footmen, horsemen and archers which arrive from Caesarea and Syria, and which are also a part of the auxiliary troops that are provided by King Antiochus, King Herod Agrippa II, King Sohemus, and also Malchus, the King of Arabia. As we learned in part three, Sohemus was a Syrian priest king of the Emesan kingdom, while I assume Antiochus to be Antiochus IV of Commagene. Josephus remarks that this army consisted of a total of 60,000 fighters, in addition to other servants who followed them in vast numbers. Thus, Joseph says the following:

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"But as to Titus, he sailed over from Achaia to Alexandria, and that sooner than the winter season did usually permit; so he took with him those forces he was sent for, and marching with great expedition, he came suddenly to Ptolemais, and there finding his father, together with the two legions, the fifth and the tenth, which were the most eminent legions of all, he joined them to that fifteenth legion which was with his father: eighteen cohorts followed these legions; there came also five cohorts from Caesarea, with one troop of horsemen, and five other troops of horsemen from Syria. Now these ten cohorts had severally a thousand footmen, hut the other thirteen cohorts had no more than six hundred footmen apiece, and an hundred and twenty horsemen. There were also a considerable number of auxiliaries got together, that came from the Kings Antiochus and Agrippa, and Sohemus, each of them contributing one thousand footmen that were archers, and a thousand horsemen. Malchus, also, the King of Arabia, sent a thousand horsemen, besides five thousand footmen, the greatest part of which were archers; so that the whole army, including the auxiliaries sent by the kings, as well horsemen as footmen, when all were united together, amounted to sixty thousand, besides the servants, who, as they followed in vast numbers, so because they had been trained up in war with the rest, ought not to be distinguished from the fighting men; for as they were in the masters' service in times of peace, so did they undergo the like dangers with them in times of war, insomuch that they were inferior to none, either in skill or in strength, only they were subject to their masters."

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My friends, this was a powerful army of 60,000 professionally trained and disciplined soldiers and killers. That being the case, is it really any wonder that the rebellious Jews were simply no match for them, and did not stand a chance against them? Not only were the Jews inferior to the Romans, but they were foolish; and as we learned earlier in this series, they allowed their own pride to bring about their own destruction.

While some of the wiser Jews understood that fighting against the Romans was an exercise in futility, and a sure recipe for their own destruction -- and thus surrendered peacefully to them, and even fought along side the Romans -- the seditious and extremely violent Zealots and Sicarii were too blind, or else too proud to see it. Thus, they led the entire nation to their destruction.

As I explain in the series "The Fruits of Disobedience", as well as in the articles "Oh Israel, Why Will Ye Die?" and "You've Got It Wrong: Submit and Live!", it seems that those Jews just never learned the important lesson that God tried to teach them. That is that when His hand of judgment falls, the correct thing to do is to NOT resist the invading power, but rather to humbly submit to it, and to recognize it as a chastisement from the Lord.

Yet, as we also discussed earlier, even God did not want the war to end. He intentionally wanted it to proceed, because He was going to use the Romans to chastise the Jews, just as He had used the Assyrians and the Babylonians to punish them in the previous centuries.

With the previous excerpt, we have concluded Book 3 Chapter 4 of "The War of the Jews". In Chapter 5, Josephus provides us with a rather detailed description of the Roman armies as well as the Roman camps, and other particulars for which he felt that the Romans should be commended. In Chapter 6, he resumes his narration of the war and picks up with the vast Roman army encamped at Ptolemais. Chapter 6 opens with the tribune who Vespasian had assigned to Sepphoris -- Placidus -- overrunning Galilee, and killing the weaker Galileans.

These easy victories apparently gave Placidus a false sense of superiority. More importantly, Josephus explains that he -- meaning Placidus -- believed that if he could conquer the strongest city in Galilee -- meaning Jotapata, the wall of which had been built by Josephus himself -- he would, in the words of Josephus "obtain great honour to himself among the commanders, and bring a great advantage to them in their future campaign; because, if this strongest place of them all were once taken, the rest would be so affrighted as to surrender themselves." However, Placidus miscalculated the strength and cunning of the men of Jotapata. As a result, he was both humiliated and defeated, and ended up running away.

After describing Placidus' humbling defeat at Jotapata, the narration returns to the great army of Vespasian and Titus, which along with the armies of all of the other kings and auxiliaries, begins their march out of Ptolemais. Josephus goes into considerable detail at this point. And then they arrived at the border of the region known as Galilee. Rather than go to war immediately -- which is what his men actually wanted to do -- Vespasian relied on a psychological tactic to strike fear into the Jewish seditionists. He allowed the Galileans to view his army. His other motivation is that he hopes that the Galileans will choose to surrender rather than to fight.

Vespasian's tactic met with great success, because Josephus' army chose to flee even before the battle had actually begun. In this way, Josephus was left alone with just a few of his men. Realizing the futility of the situation, he then fled to the city of Tiberias. Thus, Josephus writes as follows:

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"And thus did Vespasian march with his army, and came to the bounds of Galilee, where he pitched his camp and restrained his soldiers, who were eager for war; he also showed his army to the enemy, in order to affright them, and to afford them a season for repentance, to see whether they would change their minds before it came to a battle, and at the same time he got things ready for besieging their strongholds. And indeed this sight of the general brought many to repent of their revolt, and put them all into a consternation; for those that were in Josephus's camp, which was the city called Garis, not far from Sepphoris, when they heard that the war was come near them, and that the Romans would suddenly fight them hand to hand, dispersed themselves, and fled, not only before they came to a battle, but before the enemy ever came in sight, while Josephus and a few others were left behind; and as he saw that he had not an army sufficient to engage the enemy, that the spirits of the Jews were sunk, and that the greater part would willingly come to terms, if they might be credited, he already despaired of the success of the whole war, and determined to get as far as he possibly could get out of danger; so he took those that stayed along with him, and fled to Tiberias."

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Please go to part six for the continuation of this series.

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