30-70AD History (external support)

These are given to show the major events and character of the period.

Timeline: 
' TRIBULATION

4BC-100AD Timeline according to Josephus

A timeline (Chronology) of the Life of Josephus and his Era, Judean Events

4 BC Herod the Great dies. His kingdom is divided among his heirs into Judea, Galilee, and other states.

6 AD Birth of Matthias ben Joseph, descendant of the Hasmonean (Maccaabean) kings and priests. Will be the father of Josephus.

6 AD Archalaeus, Ethnarch of Judea, is deposed. Judea ceases to be governed by Jews and becomes a Roman province under Procurator Coponius. Census and taxes imposed.

6 Resistance movement against Rome begun by Judas the Galilean and Zadok: "No ruler but the Almighty." Their insurgency will eventually lead to the War.

14 Emperor Augustus dies, is succeeded by Tiberias.

26 Pontius Pilate becomes Procurator of Judea.
Religious conflicts cause riots against him that are violently suppressed.

c. 31 Jesus of Nazareth gains following.

c. 33 Jesus executed in Jerusalem.

35 Pilate replaced by Marcellus.

37 Josephus born. His parents, of royal and priestly lines, are prominent in Jerusalem. 37 Tiberias dies. Gaius Caligula becomes Emperor.

41 Caligula assassinated. Claudius becomes emperor with the aid of Agrippa, grandson of Herod. Claudius bestows kingship of Judea and other lands on Agrippa.

c. 42-43 Agrippa I suppresses followers of Jesus, imprisons church leader Peter. Project to build "huge fortifications" around Jerusalem is begun.

44 Agrippa I dies. Judea again comes under the rule of a Roman procurator (Fadus).

50 Some Jewish lands assigned to kingship of Agrippa II.

51 Josephus at 14 is recognized for his understanding of Jewish law.

52 Felix becomes Procurator of Judea.

53 Josephus at 16 goes on spiritual search. Spends time with the Sadducees, Pharisees, and Essenes. Lives in desert with teacher Banus

54 Death of Claudius. Nero becomes Emperor.

56 Josephus returns to Jerusalem at age 19. Decides to align himself with the Pharisees. 54 and after. Jewish revolutionary activity heats up. "Sicarii" terrorists kill High Priest Jonathan. Felix uses force and executions to suppress revolt. Would-be prophets stir up the people; the "Egyptian," a Messianic figure, gains followers, many of whom are killed by Felix's army.

57 Paul visits Jerusalem to report to James about his efforts to gain followers among the non-Jews. While visiting the Temple he is accused of defiling the holy place and arrested.

59 Festus becomes Procurator. Paul presents his case to Festus and Agrippa II, then is sent to Rome to appeal to the Emperor.

59-62 Festus continues to battle Sicarii. Clashes between Jews and Greeks in Caesarea. An "impostor" promises salvation to Jews who followed him into the desert; he and his followers are killed by Festus' cavalry. High priest Ismael and others are imprisoned in Rome by Nero after a dispute with Agrippa II.

62/63 Josephus, at 26, travels to Rome to free priests imprisoned there. with the help of a Jewish stage actor he gains the favor of Nero's wife Poppaea, who attains their release. 62 Festus dies. While Judea waits for the new Procurator to arrive, the recently appointed High Priest Ananus arrests and executes "James, the brother of Jesus called the Christ." Prominent Jews are angered and denounce Ananus to Agrippa II, who subsequently deposes Ananus after three months as High Priest.

62 Albinus is made Procurator.

62-65 Albinus wages an anti-terrorist campaign. Hostage-taking by the sicarii becomes commonplace.

65 Florus becomes Procurator. HIs abuses of power cause the sedition to gain followers. Violence breaks out in Caesarea and spreads to Jerusalem.

65 Josephus returns to Jerusalem to find revolt beginning and the Antonia fortress captured. He advocates against war. 66, Summer. Jewish War begins. Sacrifices for the Emperor are halted in the Temple. Masada is seized by the Zealots. The Roman garrison at the Antonia Fortress is captured. The High Priest is slain by the rebels.

66, Autumn. Gallus advances on Jerusalem with the Twelfth Roman Legion but withdraws. His forces are pursued into Syria.

66 The revolutionary government appoints Josephus commander of Galilee. He fortifies the major cities.

Spring 67 The Roman forces under Vespasian march into Galilee. The city of Gadara falls. Josephus withdraws to Jotapata.

July 67 Jotapata falls after a six-week siege. Josephus captured. Claims that the Messianic prophecies that began the war actually applied to Vespasian, who therefore was destined to become Emperor. Vespasian, charmed, retains Josephus as hostage and interpreter.

67-68 Vespasian continues operations in Galilee. Prepares for assault on Jerusalem.

68 Nero commits suicide. Galba and Otho, in turn become Emperor and are killed.

July 69 Vespasian's legions proclaim him Emperor after he uprooted the 3 previous Roman Emperors, (Galba, Otho and Vitellius), who lasted briefly under Vespasion's subversive campaign to gain the throne, (see Tacitus' "The Murderous Year of the 4 Emperors" ). Josephus' prophecy having come true, he is freed. He takes Vespasian's family name of Flavius and marries a captive.

70, Winter. Vitellius beheaded. Vespasian travels to Rome. Titus, the son of Vespasian, takes command of the forces in Judea. Josephus divorces his wife, marries another in Alexandria.

70, May 1. Titus encamps outside Jerusalem, beginning the siege. Josephus attempts to persuade the leaders of the revolt to surrender, but fails.

70, Tenth of Av (August 30). The Temple of Jerusalem is destroyed. Jerusalem is taken by Titus. The War effectively ends.

71 Josephus rewarded with land in Judea, but moves to Rome. Becomes Roman citizen. Is given a commission by Vespasian to write a history of the war.

73 Birth of Josephus' son Hyrcanus.

c. 75 Josephus receives a gift of land in Judea from Vespasian. Divorces his second wife. Marries a Jewish woman of Crete.

76 Birth of Josephus' son Justus.

c. 78 The Jewish War, Josephus' first-hand account, is published.

78 Birth of Josephus' son Simonides Agrippa.

79 Death of Vespasian. Titus becomes Emperor.

81 Death of Titus. Domitian becomes Emperor.

93 Antiquities of the Jews

c. 95-100 Against Apion, a defense of his previous work. 95 Death of Agrippa II.

c. 100 The Life of Josephus, an autobiography.

? Death of Josephus.

37-100AD Josephus

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From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephus

Josephus

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A Roman portrait bust said to be of Josephus
A Roman portrait bust said to be of Josephus

Josephus (37 – sometime after 100 AD),[1] who became known, in his capacity as a Roman citizen, as Titus Flavius Josephus,[2] was a 1st-century Jewish historian and apologist of priestly and royal ancestry who survived and recorded the Destruction of Jerusalem in 70. His works give an important insight into first-century Judaism.

Josephus's two most important works are Jewish War (c. 75) and Antiquities of the Jews (c. 94).[3] Jewish War recounts the Jewish revolt against Rome (66-70). Antiquities of the Jews recounts the history of the world from a Jewish perspective. These works provide valuable insight into the background of 1st-century Judaism and early Christianity.[3]

Contents

[hide]

[edit] Life

The Galilee, site of Josephus' governorship, in late antiquity.
The Galilee, site of Josephus' governorship, in late antiquity.

Josephus, who introduced himself in Greek as "Iosepos (Ιώσηπος), son of Matthias, an ethnic Hebrew, a priest from Jerusalem",[4] fought the Romans in the First Jewish-Roman War of 66-73 as a Jewish military leader in Galilee. After the Jewish garrison of Yodfat was taken under siege, the Romans invaded, killing thousands, and the remaining survivors who had managed to elude the forces committed suicide. However, in circumstances that are somewhat unclear, Josephus and one of his soldiers surrendered to the Roman forces invading Galilee in July 67. He became a prisoner and provided the Romans with intelligence on the ongoing revolt. The Roman forces were led by Flavius Vespasian and his son Titus, both subsequently Roman emperors. In 69, Josephus was released (cf. War IV.622-629) and according to Josephus's own account, he appears to have played some role as a negotiator with the defenders in the Siege of Jerusalem in 70.

In 71, he arrived in Rome in the entourage of Titus, becoming a Roman citizen and Flavian dynasty client (hence he is often referred to as Flavius Josephus - see below). In addition to Roman citizenship he was granted accommodation in conquered Judea, and a decent, if not extravagant, pension. It was while in Rome, and under Flavian patronage, that Josephus wrote all of his known works.

Although he only ever calls himself "Josephus", he appears to have taken the Roman nomen Flavius and praenomen Titus from his patrons.[5] This was standard for new citizens.

Josephus's first wife perished together with his parents in Jerusalem during the siege and Vespasian arranged for him to marry a Jewish woman who had been captured by the Romans. This woman left Josephus, and around 70, he married a Jewish woman from Alexandria by whom he had three male children. Only one, Flavius Hyrcanus, survived childhood. Josephus later divorced his third wife and around 75, married his fourth wife, a Jewish girl from Crete, from a distinguished family. This last marriage produced two sons, Flavius Justus and Simonides Agrippa.

Josephus's life is beset with ambiguity. For his critics, he never satisfactorily explained his actions during the Jewish war — why he failed to commit suicide in Galilee in 67 with some of his compatriots, and why, after his capture, he cooperated with the Roman invaders. Historian E. Mary Smallwood wrote:

(Josephus) was conceited, not only about his own learning but also about the opinions held of him as commander both by the Galileans and by the Romans; he was guilty of shocking duplicity at Jotapata, saving himself by sacrifice of his companions; he was too naive to see how he stood condemned out of his own mouth for his conduct, and yet no words were too harsh when he was blackening his opponents; and after landing, however involuntarily, in the Roman camp, he turned his captivity to his own advantage, and benefitted for the rest of his days from his change of side.[6]

However, his critics ignore the fact that Simon Bar Giora and John of Giscala, both extreme zealots and great opponents of Josephus, who stayed in Jerusalem and led the war against Rome in its final stage, in a moment of truth, preferred life over suicide and humbly surrendered to the Romans. At any rate, those who have viewed Josephus as a traitor and informer have questioned his credibility as a historian — dismissing his works as Roman propaganda or as a personal apologetic, aimed at rehabilitating his reputation in history. More recently, commentators have reassessed previously-held views of Josephus. As P.J. O'Rourke quipped,

Reason dictates we should hate this man. But it's hard to get angry at Josephus. What, after all, did he do? A few soldiers were tricked into suicide. Some demoralizing claptrap was shouted at a beleaguered army. A wife was distressed... all of which pale by comparison to what the good men did. For it was the loyal, the idealistic and the brave who did the real damage. The devout and patriotic leaders of Jerusalem sacrificed tens of thousands of lives to the cause of freedom. Vespasian and Titus sacrificed tens of thousands of more to the cause of civil order. Even Agrippa II, the Roman client king of Judea who did all he could to prevent the war, ended by supervising the destruction of half a dozen of his cities and the sale of their inhabitants into slavery. How much better for everyone if all the principal figures of the region had been slithering filth like Josephus.[7]

Josephus was unquestionably an important apologist in the Roman world for the Jewish people and culture, particularly at a time of conflict and tension. He always remained, in his own eyes, a loyal and law-observant Jew. He went out of his way both to commend Judaism to educated Gentiles, and to insist on its compatibility with cultured Graeco-Roman thought. He constantly contended for the antiquity of Jewish culture, presenting its people as civilised, devout and philosophical.

Eusebius reports that a statue of Josephus was erected in Rome.[8]

[edit] Significance to scholarship

The works of Josephus provide crucial information about the First Jewish-Roman War and are also important literary source material for understanding the context of the Dead Sea Scrolls and post-Second Temple Judaism. Josephan scholarship in the 19th and early 20th century became focused on Josephus' relationship to the sect of the Pharisees. He was consistently portrayed as a member of the sect, but nevertheless viewed as a villainous traitor to his own nation - a view which became known as the classical concept of Josephus. In the mid 20th century, this view was challenged by a new generation of scholars who formulated the modern concept of Josephus, still considering him a Pharisee but restoring his reputation in part as patriot and a historian of some standing. Recent scholarship since 1990 has sought to move scholarly perceptions forward by demonstrating that Josephus was not a Pharisee but an orthodox Aristocrat-Priest who became part of the Temple establishment as a matter of deference and not willing association (Cf. Steve Mason, Todd Beall, and Ernst Gerlach).

Josephus offers information about individuals, groups, customs and geographical places. His writings provide a significant, extra-biblical account of the post-exilic period of the Maccabees, the Hasmonean dynasty and the rise of Herod the Great. He makes references to the Sadducees, Jewish High Priests of the time, Pharisees and Essenes, the Herodian Temple, Quirinius' census and the Zealots, and to such figures as Pontius Pilate, Herod the Great, Agrippa I and Agrippa II, John the Baptist, James the brother of Jesus, and a disputed reference to Jesus. He is an important source for studies of immediate post-Temple Judaism (and, thus, the context of early Christianity).

A careful reading of Josephus' writings allowed Ehud Netzer, an archaeologist from Hebrew University, to confirm the location of Herod's Tomb after a fruitless search of 35 years - on top of tunnels and water pools at a flattened desert site, halfway up the hill to the Herodium, 12 kilometers south of Jerusalem - exactly where it should be according to Josephus writings.

For many years, the works of Josephus were printed only in an imperfect Latin translation from the original Greek. It was only in 1544 that a version of the Greek text was made available, edited by the Dutch humanist Arnoldus Arlenius. The first English translation appeared in 1602 by Thomas Lodge with subsequent editions appearing throughout the 17th century. However, the 1544 Greek translation formed the basis of the 1732 English translation by William Whiston which achieved enormous popularity in the English speaking world and which is currently available online for free download by Project Gutenberg. Later editions of the Greek text include that of Benedikt Niese, who made a detailed examination of all the available manuscripts, mainly from France and Spain. This was the version used by H. St J. Thackeray for the Loeb Classical Library edition widely used today.

A 1640 edition of the works of Josephus translated by Thomas Lodge which originally appeared in 1602.
A 1640 edition of the works of Josephus translated by Thomas Lodge which originally appeared in 1602.

[edit] Works

A fanciful representation of Flavius Josephus, in an engraving in William Whiston's translation of his works
A fanciful representation of Flavius Josephus, in an engraving in William Whiston's translation of his works

[edit] The Jewish War

Wikisource
Greek Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Main article: The Wars of the Jews

His first work in Rome was an account of the Jewish War, addressed to certain "upper barbarians" – usually thought to be the Jewish community in Mesopotamia – in his "paternal tongue" (War I.3), arguably the Western Aramaic language. He then wrote a seven-volume account in Greek known to us as the Jewish War (Latin Bellum Iudaicum). It starts with the period of the Maccabees and concludes with accounts of the fall of Jerusalem, the Roman victory celebrations in Rome, the mopping-up operations, Roman military operations elsewhere in the Empire and the uprising in Cyrene. Together with the account in his Life of some of the same events, it also provides the reader with an overview of Josephus' own part in the events since his return to Jerusalem from a brief visit to Rome in the early 60s (Life 13-17).

Rome cannot have been an easy place for a Jew in the wake of the suppression of the Jewish revolt. Josephus would have witnessed the marches of Titus' triumphant legions leading their Jewish captives, and carrying trophies of despoiled treasure from the Temple in Jerusalem. He would have experienced the popular presentation of the Jews as a bellicose and misanthropic people.

It was against this background that Josephus wrote his War, and although often dismissed as pro-Roman propaganda (perhaps hardly surprising given where his patronage was coming from), he claims to be writing to counter anti-Judean accounts. He disputes the claim that the Jews serve a defeated god and are naturally hostile to Roman civilization. Rather, he blames the Jewish War on what he calls "unrepresentative and over-zealous fanatics" among the Jews, who led the masses away from their natural aristocratic leaders (like him), with disastrous results. He also blames some of the governors of Judea, but these he presents as atypical Romans: corrupt and incompetent administrators. Thus, according to Josephus, the traditional Jew was, should be, and can be, a loyal and peace-loving citizen. Jews can, and historically have, accepted Rome's hegemony precisely because of their faith that God himself gives empires their power.

[edit] Jewish Antiquities

Main article: Antiquities of the Jews

The next literary work by Josephus is his twenty-one volume Antiquities of the Jews, completed in the last year of the emperor Flavius Domitian (between 1.9.93 and 14.3.94, cf. AJ X.267). He claims that interested persons have pressed him to give a fuller account of the Jewish culture and constitution. Here, in expounding Jewish history, law and custom, he is entering into many philosophical debates current in Rome at that time. Again he offers an apologia for the antiquity and universal significance of the Jewish people.

Beginning with the story of Creation, he outlines Jewish history. Abraham taught science to the Egyptians, who in turn taught the Greeks. Moses set up a senatorial priestly aristocracy, which like that of Rome resisted monarchy. The great figures of the biblical stories are presented as ideal philosopher-leaders. There is again an autobiographical appendix defending Josephus' own conduct at the end of the war when he cooperated with the Roman forces.

[edit] Against Apion

Josephus' Against Apion is a final two-volume defence of Judaism as classical religion and philosophy, stressing its antiquity against what Josephus claimed was the relatively more recent traditions of the Greeks. Some anti-Judean allegations ascribed by Josephus to the Greek writer Apion, and myths accredited to Manetho are also exposed.

[edit] Literature about Josephus

  • The Josephus Trilogy, a novel by Lion Feuchtwanger
    • Der jüdische Krieg (Josephus), 1932
    • Die Söhne (The Jews of Rome), 1935
    • Der Tag wird kommen (The day will come, Josephus and the Emperor), 1942
  • Flavius Josephus Eyewitness to Rome's first-century conquest of Judea, Mireille Hadas-lebel, Macmillan 1993, Simon and Schuster 2001
  • The 2000 Year Old Middle East Policy Expert, Give War A Chance, P J O'Rourke[9]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  • The Works of Josephus, Complete and Unabridged New Updated Edition Translated by William Whiston, A.M., Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 1987. ISBN 0-913573-86-8 (Hardcover). ISBN 1-56563-167-6 (Paperback).
  • O'Rourke, P.J. Give War a Chance. Vintage, 1993.
  • Per Bilde. Flavius Josephus between Jerusalem and Rome: his Life, his Works and their Importance. Sheffield, 1998.
  • Shaye J.D. Cohen. "Josephus in Galilee and Rome. His Vita and development as a historian." Columbia Studies in the Classical tradition 8 (1979 Leiden).
  • Louis Feldman. "Flavius Josephus revisited. The man, his writings, and his significance." Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römischen Welt 21.2 (1984).

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Louis H. Feldman, Steve Mason (1999). Flavius Josephus. Brill Academic Publishers.
  2. ^ Josephus refers to himself in his Greek works as Jōsēpos Matthiou pais (Josephus the son of Matthais). Although Josephus also spoke Aramaic and most probably also Hebrew, no extant sources record his name in these languages. However, his Hebrew/Aramaic name has gone down in Jewish history as יוסף בן מתתיהו (Yosef ben Matityahu) and thus he is commonly known in Israel today.
  3. ^ a b Harris, Stephen L., Understanding the Bible. Palo Alto: Mayfield. 1985.
  4. ^ Jewish War I.3
  5. ^ Attested by the third century Church theologian Origen (Comm. Matt. 10.17).
  6. ^ Josephus, Flavius, The Jewish War, tr. G.A. Williamson, introduction by E. Mary Smallwood. New York, Penguin, 1981, p. 24
  7. ^ O'Rourke 104.
  8. ^ Hist. eccl. 3.9.2
  9. ^ O'Rourke, P.J. Give War a Chance. Vintage, 1993.

[edit] External links

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56-117AD Tacitus

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Book Description
In The Histories Cornelius Tacitus, widely regarded as the greatest of all Roman historians, describes with cynical power the murderous `year of the Four Emperors'--AD 69--when in just a few months the whole of the Roman Empire was torn apart by civil war [This was Vespasian supplanting 3 emperors to become emperor himself in fulfillment of Daniel 7:8 & Daniel 7:24]. W.H. Fyfe's classic translation has been substantially revised and supplied with extensive historical and literary notes. The Introduction examines the subtleties of Tacitus's writing and gives the necessary political and social background. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Language Notes
Text: English, Latin (translation) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacitus

Tacitus

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For other uses, see Tacitus (disambiguation).
Tacitus

Tacitus
Bornca. 56 AD
Diedca. 117
OccupationSenator, consul, governor, historian
GenresHistory
SubjectsHistory, biography, oratory
Literary movementSilver Age of Latin
Debut worksBiography: De vita Iulii Agricolae
History: Histories

Publius (or Gaius) Cornelius Tacitus (ca. 56 – ca. 117) was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories—examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those that reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors. These two works span the history of the Roman Empire from the death of Augustus in 14 AD to (presumably) the death of emperor Domitian in 96 AD. There are significant lacunae in the surviving texts.

Other works by Tacitus discuss oratory (in dialogue format, see Dialogus de oratoribus), Germania (in De origine et situ Germanorum), and biographical notes about his father-in-law Agricola, primarily during his campaign in Britannia (see De vita et moribus Iulii Agricolae).

Tacitus' historiographical style in his major works is annalistic. An author writing in the latter part of the Silver Age of Latin literature, his work is distinguished by a boldness and sharpness of wit, and a compact and sometimes unconventional use of Latin.

Contents

[hide]

[edit] Biography

While Tacitus' works contain much information about his world, details regarding his personal life are scarce. What little is known comes from scattered hints throughout his work, the letters of his friend and admirer Pliny the Younger, an inscription found at Mylasa in Caria,[1] and educated guesswork.

Tacitus was born in 56 or 57 to an equestrian family;[2] like many Latin authors of the Golden and Silver Ages, he was from the provinces, probably either northern Italy, Gallia Narbonensis, or Hispania. The exact place and date of his birth are not known, while his praenomen (first name) is similarly a mystery; in the letters of Sidonius Apollinaris his name is Gaius, but in the major surviving manuscript of his work his name is given as Publius.[3] (One scholar's suggestion of Sextus has gained no traction.)[4]

[edit] Family and early life

Tacitus is thought to have come from Gallia Narbonensis.
Tacitus is thought to have come from Gallia Narbonensis.

The older aristocratic families were largely destroyed during the proscriptions at the end of the Republic, and Tacitus is clear that he owes his rank to the Flavian emperors (Hist. 1.1). The theory that he descended from a freedman finds no support apart from his statement, in an invented speech, that many senators and knights were descended from freedmen (Ann. 13.27), and is dismissed by prominent historians.[5]

His father may have been the Cornelius Tacitus who was procurator of Belgica and Germania; Pliny the Elder mentions that Cornelius had a son who grew and aged rapidly (N.H. 7.76), and implies an early death. If Cornelius was Tacitus' father and since there is no mention of Tacitus suffering such a condition in the surviving record, it would likely refer to a brother instead.[6] This connection, and the friendship between the younger Pliny and Tacitus, led many scholars to the conclusion that the two families were of similar class, means, and background: equestrians, of significant wealth, and from provincial families.[7]

The province of his birth is unknown. His marriage to the daughter of the Narbonensian senator Gnaeus Julius Agricola may indicate that he, too, came from Gallia Narbonensis. Tacitus' dedication to Fabius Iustus in the Dialogus may indicate a connection with Spain, while his friendship with Pliny indicates northern Italy.[8] None of this evidence is conclusive. No evidence exists that Pliny's friends from northern Italy knew Tacitus, nor do Pliny's letters ever hint that the two men had a common background.[9] Indeed, the strongest piece of evidence is in Pliny Book 9, Letter 23, which reports that when Tacitus was asked if he were Italian or provincial, upon giving an unclear answer, was further asked if he were Tacitus or Pliny. Since Pliny was from Italy, some historians infer that Tacitus was from the provinces, possibly Gallia Narbonensis.[10]

His ancestry, his skill in oratory, and his sympathetic depiction of barbarians who resisted Roman rule (e.g., Ann. 2.9), have led some to suggest that he was a Celt; the Celts had occupied Gaul before the Romans, were famous for their skill in oratory, and had been subjugated by Rome.[11]

[edit] Public life, marriage, and literary career

As a young man, Tacitus studied rhetoric in Rome to prepare for a career in law and politics; like Pliny, he may have studied under Quintilian.[12] In 77 or 78 he married Julia Agricola, daughter of the famous general Agricola;[13] little is known of their home life, save that Tacitus loved hunting and the outdoors.[14] He started his career (probably the latus clavus, mark of the senator)[15] under Vespasian,[16] but it was in 81 or 82, under Titus, that he entered political life, as quaestor.[17] He advanced steadily through the cursus honorum, becoming praetor in 88 and a quindecemvir, a member of the priest college in charge of the Sibylline Books and the Secular games.[18] He gained acclaim as a lawyer and an orator; his skill in public speaking gave a marked irony to his cognomen: Tacitus ("silent").

He served in the provinces from ca. 89 to ca. 93 either in command of a legion or in a civilian post.[19] His person and property survived Domitian's reign of terror (93–96), but the experience left him jaded and grim (perhaps ashamed at his own complicity), and gave him the hatred of tyranny evident in his works.[20] The Agricola, chs. 44–45, is illustrative:

Agricola was spared those later years during which Domitian, leaving now no interval or breathing space of time, but, as it were, with one continuous blow, drained the life-blood of the Commonwealth... It was not long before our hands dragged Helvidius to prison, before we gazed on the dying looks of Manricus and Rusticus, before we were steeped in Senecio's innocent blood. Even Nero turned his eyes away, and did not gaze upon the atrocities which he ordered; with Domitian it was the chief part of our miseries to see and to be seen, to know that our sighs were being recorded...

From his seat in the Senate he became suffect consul in 97 during the reign of Nerva, being the first of his family to do so. During his tenure he reached the height of his fame as an orator when he delivered the funeral oration for the famous veteran soldier Lucius Verginius Rufus.[21]

In the following year he wrote and published the Agricola and Germania, announcing the beginnings of the literary endeavors that would occupy him until his death.[22] Afterwards he absented from public life, but returned during Trajan's reign. In 100, he, along with his friend Pliny the Younger, prosecuted Marius Priscus (proconsul of Africa) for corruption. Priscus was found guilty and sent into exile; Pliny wrote a few days later that Tacitus had spoken "with all the majesty which characterizes his usual style of oratory".[23]

A lengthy absence from politics and law followed while he wrote his two major works: the Histories and the Annals. In 112 or 113 he held the highest civilian governorship, that of the Roman province of Asia in Western Anatolia, recorded in an inscription found at Mylasa (mentioned above). A passage in the Annals fixes 116 as the terminus post quem of his death, which may have been as late as 125.[24] It is unknown whether he had any children, though the Augustan History reports that the emperor Marcus Claudius Tacitus claimed him for an ancestor and provided for the preservation of his works—but like so much of the Augustan History, this story is probably fraudulent.[25]

[edit] Works

The title page of Justus Lipsius's 1598 edition of the complete works of Tacitus, bearing the stamps of the Bibliotheca Comunale in Empoli, Italy.
The title page of Justus Lipsius's 1598 edition of the complete works of Tacitus, bearing the stamps of the Bibliotheca Comunale in Empoli, Italy.

Five works ascribed to Tacitus have survived (albeit with some lacunae), the largest of which are the Annals and the Histories. The dates are approximate:

[edit] Major works

The Annals and the Histories, originally published separately, were meant to form a single edition of thirty books.[26] Although Tacitus wrote the Histories before the Annals, the events in the Annals precede the Histories; together they form a continuous narrative from the death of Augustus (14) to the death of Domitian (96). Though parts have been lost, what remains is an invaluable record of the era.

[edit] The Histories

Main article: Histories (Tacitus)

In an early chapter of the Agricola, Tacitus said he wished to speak about the years of Domitian, Nerva, and Trajan. In the Histories the scope has changed; Tacitus says that he will deal with the age of Nerva and Trajan at a later time. Instead, he will cover the period from the civil wars of the Year of Four Emperors and end with the despotism of the Flavians. Only the first four books and twenty-six chapters of the fifth book survive, covering the year 69 and the first part of 70. The work is believed to have continued up to the death of Domitian on September 18, 96. The fifth book contains—as a prelude to the account of Titus's suppression of the Great Jewish Revolt—a short ethnographic survey of the ancient Jews and is an invaluable record of the educated Romans' attitude towards that people.

[edit] The Annals

Main article: Annals (Tacitus)

The Annals was Tacitus' final work, covering the period from the death of Augustus Caesar in 14 AD. He wrote at least sixteen books, but books 7–10 and parts of books 5, 6, 11 and 16 are missing. Book 6 ends with the death of Tiberius and books 7–12 presumably covered the reigns of Caligula and Claudius. The remaining books cover the reign of Nero, perhaps until his death in June 68 or until the end of that year, to connect with the Histories. The second half of book 16 is missing (ending with the events of 66). We do not know whether Tacitus completed the work or whether he finished the other works that he had planned to write; he died before he could complete his planned histories of Nerva and Trajan, and no record survives of the work on Augustus Caesar and the beginnings of the Empire with which he had planned to finish his work.

[edit] Minor works

Tacitus wrote three minor works on various subjects: the Agricola, a biography of his father-in-law Gnaeus Julius Agricola; the Germania, a monograph on the lands and tribes of barbarian Germania; and the Dialogus, a dialogue on the art of rhetoric.

[edit] Germania

Main article: Germania (book)

The Germania (Latin title: De Origine et situ Germanorum) is an ethnographic work on the diverse set of people Tacitus believed to be Germanic tribes outside the Roman Empire. Ethnography had a long and distinguished heritage in classical literature, and the Germania fits squarely within the tradition established by authors from Herodotus to Julius Caesar. Tacitus had written a similar, albeit shorter, piece in his Agricola (chapters 10–13). The book begins with a description of the lands, laws, and customs of the tribes (chapters 1–27); it then segues into descriptions of individual tribes, beginning with those dwelling closest to Roman lands and ending on the uttermost shores of the Baltic Sea, with a description of the primitive and savage Fenni and the unknown tribes beyond them.

[edit] Agricola (De vita et moribus Iulii Agricolae)

Main article: Agricola (book)

The Agricola (written ca. 98) recounts the life of Gnaeus Julius Agricola, an eminent Roman general and Tacitus' father-in-law; it also covers, briefly, the geography and ethnography of ancient Britain. As in the Germania, Tacitus favorably contrasts the liberty of the native Britons with the corruption and tyranny of the Empire; the book also contains eloquent and vicious polemics against the rapacity and greed of Rome.

[edit] Dialogus

The style of the Dialogus follows Cicero's models for Latin rhetoric.
The style of the Dialogus follows Cicero's models for Latin rhetoric.
Main article: Dialogus

There is uncertainty about when Tacitus wrote Dialogus de oratoribus , but it was probably after the Agricola and the Germania. Many characteristics set it apart from the other works of Tacitus, so that its authenticity has been questioned, although it is still grouped with the Agricola and the Germania in the manuscript tradition. The way of speaking in the Dialogus seems closer to Cicero's proceedings, refined but not prolix, which inspired the teaching of Quintilian; it lacks the incongruities that are typical of Tacitus' major historical works. It may have been written when Tacitus was young; its dedication to Fabius Iustus would thus give the date of publication, but not the date of writing. More probably, the unusually classical style may be explained by the fact that the Dialogus is a work dealing with rhetoric. For works in the rhetoric genre, the structure, the language, and the style of Cicero were the usual models.

[edit] The sources of Tacitus

Tacitus used the official sources of the Roman state: the acta senatus (the minutes of the session of the Senate) and the acta diurna populi Romani (a collection of the acts of the government and news of the court and capital). He read collections of emperors' speeches, such as Tiberius and Claudius. Generally, Tacitus was a scrupulous historian who paid careful attention to his historical works. The minor inaccuracies in the Annals may be due to Tacitus dying before finishing (and therefore final proofreading) of this work. He used a variety of historical and literary sources; he used them freely and he chose from sources of varied opinions.

Tacitus cites some of his sources directly, among them Cluvius Rufus, Fabius Rusticus and Pliny the Elder, who had written Bella Germaniae and a historical work which was the continuation of that of Aufidius Bassus. Tacitus used some collections of letters (epistolarium) and various notes. He also took information from exitus illustrium virorum. These were a collection of books by those who were antithetical to the emperors. They tell of the sacrifice of the martyr to freedom, especially the men who committed suicide, following the theory of the Stoics. While he placed no value on the Stoic theory of suicide, Tacitus used accounts of famous suicides to give a dramatic tone to his stories. These suicides seemed, to him, ostentatious and politically useless; however, he gives prominence to the speeches of some of those about to commit suicide, for example Cremutius Cordus' speech in Ann. IV, 34-35.

[edit] Literary style

Tacitus' writings are known for their deep-cutting and dense prose, seldom glossy, in contrast to the more placable style of some of his contemporaries, like Plutarch. Describing a near defeat of the Roman army in Ann. I, 63 Tacitus does apply gloss, but does so by the brevity with which he describes the end of the hostilities, than by embellishing phrases.

In most of his writings he keeps to a chronological ordering of his narration, with only seldom an outline of the "bigger picture", and leaves the reader to construct that picture for himself. Nonetheless, when he does sketch the bigger picture, for example, in the opening paragraphs of the Annals - summarizing the situation at the end of the reign of Augustus - he uses a few condensed phrases to take the reader to the heart of the story.

[edit] Approach to history

Tacitus' historical style combines various approaches to history into a method of his own (owing some debt to Sallust): seamlessly blending straightforward descriptions of events, pointed moral lessons, and tightly-focused dramatic accounts, his historiography contains deep, and often pessimistic, insights into the workings of the human mind and the nature of power.

Tacitus' own declaration regarding his approach to history is famous (Ann. I,1):

inde consilium mihi . . . tradere . . . sine ira et studio, quorum causas procul habeo. Hence my purpose is to relate . . . without either anger or zeal, from any motives to which I am far removed.

There has been much scholarly discussion about Tacitus' "neutrality" (or "partiality" to others, which would make the quote above no more than a figure of speech).

Throughout his writing, Tacitus is concerned with the balance of power between the Senate and the Emperors, corruption and the growing tyranny among the governing classes of Rome as they adjust to the new imperial régime. In Tacitus' view, they squandered their cultural traditions of free speech and independence to placate the often bemused (and rarely benign) emperor.

Tacitus explored the emperors' increasing dependence on the goodwill of the armies to secure the principes. The internecine murders of the Julio-Claudians eventually gave way to opportunist generals. These generals, backed by the legions they commanded, followed Julius Caesar's example (and that of Sulla and Pompey) in realising that military might could secure them the political power in Rome. Tacitus believed this realisation came with the death of Nero, (Hist.1.4)

Welcome as the death of Nero had been in the first burst of joy, yet it had not only roused various emotions in Rome, among the Senators, the people, or the soldiery of the capital, it had also excited all the legions and their generals; for now had been divulged that secret of the empire, that emperors could be made elsewhere than at Rome.

Tacitus' political career was largely spent under the emperor Domitian; his experience of the tyranny, corruption, and decadence prevalent in the era (81–96) may explain his bitter and ironic political analysis. He warned against the dangers of unaccountable power, against the love of power untempered by principle, and against the popular apathy and corruption, engendered by the wealth of the empire, which allowed such evils to flourish. The experience of Domitian's tyrannical reign is generally also seen as the cause of the sometimes unfairly bitter and ironic cast to his portrayal of the Julio-Claudian emperors.

Nonetheless the image he builds of Tiberius throughout the first six books of the Annals is neither exclusively bleak nor approving: most scholars analyse the image of Tiberius as predominantly positive in the first books, becoming predominantly negative in the following books relating the intrigues of Sejanus. Even then, the entrance of Tiberius in the first chapters of the first book is a crimson tale dominated by hypocrisy by and around the new emperor coming to power; and in the later books some kind of respect for the wisdom and cleverness of the old emperor, keeping out of Rome to secure his position, is often transparent.

In general Tacitus does not fear to give words of praise and words of rejection to the same person, often explaining openly which he thinks the commendable and which the despicable properties. Not conclusively taking sides for or against the persons he describes is his hallmark, and led thinkers in later times to interpret his works as well as a defense of an imperial system, as a rejection of the same (see Tacitean studies, Black vs. Red Tacitists). A better illustration of Tacitus' "sine ira et studio" is scarcely imaginable.

[edit] Prose style

Tacitus' skill with written Latin is unsurpassed; no other author is considered his equal, except perhaps for Cicero. His style differs both from the prevalent style of the Silver Age and from that of the Golden Age; though it has a calculated grandeur and eloquence (largely thanks to Tacitus' education in rhetoric), it is extremely concise, even epigrammatic—the sentences are rarely flowing or beautiful, but their point is always clear. The same style has been both derided as "harsh, unpleasant, and thorny" and praised as "grave, concise, and pithily eloquent".

His historical works focus on the psyches and inner motivations of the characters, often with penetrating insight—though it is questionable how much of his insight is correct, and how much is convincing only because of his rhetorical skill. He is at his best when exposing hypocrisy and dissimulation; for example, he follows a narrative recounting Tiberius' refusal of the title pater patriae by recalling the institution of a law forbidding any "treasonous" speech or writings—and the frivolous prosecutions which resulted (Annals, 1.72). Elsewhere (Annals 4.64–66) he compares Tiberius' public distribution of fire relief to his failure to stop the perversions and abuses of justice which he had begun. Though this kind of insight has earned him praise, he has also been criticized for ignoring the larger context of the events which he describes.

Tacitus owes the most, both in language and in method, to Sallust; Ammianus Marcellinus is the later historian whose work most closely approaches him in style.

[edit] Studies and reception history

Main article: Tacitean studies

From Pliny the Younger's 7th Letter (to Tacitus), §33:

Auguror nec me fallit augurium, historias tuas immortales futuras. I predict, and my predictions do not fail me, that your histories will be immortal.

Tacitus is remembered first and foremost as Rome's greatest historian, the equal—if not the superior—of Thucydides, the ancient Greeks' foremost historian; the Encyclopædia Britannica opined that he "ranks beyond dispute in the highest place among men of letters of all ages". His influence extends far beyond the field of history. His work has been read for its moral instruction, its gripping and dramatic narrative, and its inimitable prose style; it is as a political theorist, though, that he has been, and remains, most influential outside the field of history.[27] The political lessons taken from his work fall roughly into two camps, as identified by Giuseppe Toffanin: the "red Tacitists", who used him to support republican ideals, and the "black Tacitists", those who read him as a lesson in Machiavellian realpolitik.[28]

Though his work is the most reliable source for the history of his era, its factual accuracy is occasionally questioned: the Annals are based in part on secondary sources of unknown reliability, and there are some obvious minor mistakes, for instance confusing the two daughters of Mark Antony and Octavia Minor, both named Antonia). The Histories, written from primary documents and intimate knowledge of the Flavian period, is thought to be more accurate, though Tacitus' hatred of Domitian seemingly colored its tone and interpretations.

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ OGIS 487, first brought to light in Bulletin de correspondance hellénique, 1890, pp. 621–623
  2. ^ Since he was appointed to the quaestorship during Titus's short rule (see note below) and twenty-five was the minimum age for the position, the date of his birth can be fixed with some accuracy
  3. ^ See Oliver, 1951, for an analysis of the manuscript from which the name Publius is taken; see also Oliver, 1977, which examines the evidence for each suggested praenomen (the well-known Gaius and Publius, the lesser-known suggestions of Sextus and Quintus) before settling on Publius as the most likely.
  4. ^ Oliver, 1977, cites an article by Harold Mattingly in Rivista storica dell'Antichità, 2 (1972) 169–185
  5. ^ Syme, 1958, pp. 612–613; Gordon, 1936, pp. 145–146
  6. ^ Syme, 1958, p. 60, 613; Gordon, 1936, p. 149; Martin, 1981, p. 26
  7. ^ Syme, 1958, p. 63
  8. ^ Syme, 1958, pp. 614–616
  9. ^ Syme, 1958, pp. 616–619
  10. ^ Syme, 1958, p. 619; Gordon, 1936, p. 145
  11. ^ Gordon, 1936, pp. 150–151; Syme, 1958, pp. 621–624
  12. ^ That he studied rhetoric and law is known from the Dialogus, ch. 2; see also Martin, 1981, p. 26; Syme, 1958, pp. 114–115
  13. ^ Agricola, 9
  14. ^ Pliny, Letters 1.6, 9.10; Benario, 1975, pp. 15, 17; Syme, 1958, pp. 541–542
  15. ^ Syme, 1958, p. 63; Martin, 1981, pp. 26–27
  16. ^ (1.1)
  17. ^ His debt to Titus is stated in the Histories (1.1); since Titus's rule was short, these are the only years possible.
  18. ^ In the Annals (11.11) he mentions that, as praetor, he assisted in the Secular Games held by Domitian, which are dated precisely to 88. See Syme, 1958, p. 65; Martin, 1981, p. 27
  19. ^ The Agricola (45.5) indicates that Tacitus and his wife were absent at the time of Julius Agricola's death in 93. For his occupation during this time see Syme, 1958, p. 68; Benario, 1975, p. 13; Dudley, 1968, pp. 15–16; Martin, 1981, p. 28; Mellor, 1993, p. 8
  20. ^ For the effects on Tacitus's ideology see Dudley, 1968, p. 14; Mellor, 1993, pp. 8–9
  21. ^ Pliny, Letters, 2.1 (English)
  22. ^ In the Agricola (3) he announces what must be the beginning of his first great project: the Histories. See Dudley, 1968, p. 16
  23. ^ Pliny, Letters 2.11
  24. ^ Annals, 2.61, says that the Roman Empire "now extends to the Red Sea". If by mare rubrum he means the Persian Gulf, as is possible, then the passage must have been written after Trajan's eastern conquests in 116, but before Hadrian abandoned the new territories in 117. This may indicate only the date of publication for the first books of the Annals; Tacitus himself could have lived well into Hadrian's reign, and there is no reason to suppose that he did not. See Dudley, 1968, p. 17; Mellor, 1993, p. 9; Mendell, 1957, p. 7; Syme, 1958, p. 473; against this traditional interpretation, e.g., Goodyear, 1981, pp. 387-393.
  25. ^ Augustan History, Tacitus X. Scholarly opinion on this story is divided as to whether it is "a confused and worthless rumor" (Mendell, 1957, p. 4) or "pure fiction" (Syme, 1958, p. 796). Sidonius Apollinaris reports (Letters, 4.14; cited in Syme, 1958, p. 796) that Polemius, a 5th century Gallo-Roman aristocrat, descended from Tacitus—but this too, says Syme (ibid.) is of little use.
  26. ^ Jerome's commentary on the Book of Zechariah (14.1, 2; quoted in Mendell, 1957, p. 228) says that Tacitus's history was extant triginta voluminibus, 'in thirty volumes'.
  27. ^ Mellor, 1995, p. xvii
  28. ^ Burke, 1969, pp. 162–163

[edit] References

  • Adams, James N. "The language of the later books of Tacitus' Annals". The Classical Quarterly, Vol. 22 (1972), pp. 350–373.
  • Adams, James N. "The vocabulary of the speeches in Tacitus' historical works". Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, Vol. 20 (1973), pp. 120–144.
  • Adams, James N. "Were the later books of Tacitus' Annals revised?" Rheinisches Museum, Vol. 117 (1974), pp. 323–333.
  • Ash, Rhiannon. Ordering Anarchy: Armies and Leaders in Tacitus' Histories (London: Duckworth, 1999) ISBN 0-7156-2800-3
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  • Barnes, T.D. "The Significance of Tacitus' Dialogus de Oratoribus". Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Vol. 90 (1986), pp. 225–244.
  • Barnes, T.D. "Tacitus and the Senatus Consultum de Cn. Pisone Patre". Phoenix, Vol. 52 (1998), pp. 125–148.
  • Baron, Hans. The Crisis of the Early Italian Renaissance. (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1966)
  • Benario, Herbert W. An Introduction to Tacitus. (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1975) ISBN 0-8203-0361-5
  • Birley, Antony R. "The Life and Death of Cornelius Tacitus". Historia, Vol. 49 (2000), pp. 230–247.
  • Bosworth, A.B. "Mountain and molehill? Cornelius Tacitus and Curtius Rufus". The Classical Quarterly, Vol. 54 (2004), pp. 551–567.
  • Brink, C.O. "Can Tacitus' Dialogus Be Dated? Evidence and Historical Conclusions". Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Vol. 96 (1994), pp. 251–280.
  • Brink, C.O. "Justus Lipsius and the text of Tacitus". The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 41 (1951), pp. 32–51.
  • Burke, P. "Tacitism" in Dorey, T.A., 1969, pp. 149–171
  • Clarke, Katherine. "An Island Nation: Re-Reading Tacitus' Agricola". The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 91 (2001), pp. 94–112.
  • Daitz, S.G. "Tacitus' technique of character portrayal". The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 81 (1960), pp. 30–52.
  • Damon, Cynthia. "The Trial of Cn. Piso in Tacitus' Annals and the Senatus Consultum de Cn. Pisone patre". The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 120, No. 1 (1999), pp. 143–162.
  • Dorey, T.A. (ed.). Tacitus (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1969) ISBN 0-7100-6432-2
  • Dudley, Donald R. The World of Tacitus (London: Secker and Warburg, 1968) ISBN 0-436-13900-6
  • Eck, Werner. "Cheating the Public, or: Tacitus Vindicated". Scripta Classica Israelica, Vol. 21 (2002), pp. 149–164.
  • Fletcher, G.B.A. "Assonances or plays on words in Tacitus". The Classical Review, Vol. 54 (1940), pp. 184–187.
  • Gill, C. "Character-development in Plutarch and Tacitus". The Classical Quarterly, Vol. 33 (1983), pp. 469–487.
  • Ginsburg, Judith. Tradition and theme in the Annals of Tacitus (New York: Arno Press, 1981)
  • Goodyear, F.R.D. The Annals of Tacitus, vol. 2 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981). Commentary on Annals 1.55-81 and Annals 2.
  • Goodyear, F.R.D. "Development of language and style in the Annals of Tacitus". The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 58 (1968), pp. 22–31.
  • Goodyear, F.R.D. "The readings of the Leiden manuscript of Tacitus". The Classical Quarterly, Vol. 15 (1965), pp. 299–322.
  • Goodyear, F.R.D. Tacitus (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970), Greece & Rome New Surveys in Classics No. 4. Good survey of scholarship up to 1960s.
  • Gordon, Mary L. "The Patria of Tacitus". The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 26, Part 2 (1936), pp. 145–151.
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  • Griffin, Miriam T. "The Lyons tablet and Tacitean hindsight". The Classical Quarterly, Vol. 32 (1982), pp. 404–418.
  • Griffin, Miriam T. "Tacitus and Pliny". Scripta Classica Israelica, Vol. 18 (1999), pp. 139–158.
  • Griffin, Miriam T. "Tacitus, Tiberius and the Principate", in I. Malkin and Z. Rubihnson (eds.), Leaders and Masses in the Roman World: Studies in Honour of Zvi Yavetz (Leiden: Brill, 1995), pp. 33–57.
  • Haverfield, F. "Tacitus during the Late Roman Period and the Middle Ages". The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 6. (1916), pp. 196–201.
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  • Löfstedt, Einar. "The Style of Tacitus", in Idem, Roman Literary Portraits, transl. by P.M. Fraser (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1958), pp.157–180.
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  • Martin, Ronald. Tacitus (London: Batsford, 1981)
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  • Mattingly, H.B. "Tacitus' praenomen: the politics of a moderate". Rivista storica dell’antichità, Vol. 2 (1972), pp. 169–185.
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  • Mendell, Clarence. Tacitus: The Man and His Work. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1957) ISBN 0-208-00818-7
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  • Miller, Norma P. "Tiberius Speaks: An Examination of the Utterances Ascribed to Him in the Annals of Tacitus". The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 89 (1968), pp. 1–19.
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  • Syme, Ronald. Tacitus, Volumes 1 and 2. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1958) (reprinted in 1985 by the same publisher, with the ISBN 0-19-814327-3) is the definitive study of his life and works.
  • Syme, Ronald. Ten Studies in Tacitus. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970) ISBN 0-19-814358-3
  • Talbert, R.J.A. "Tacitus and the Senatus Consultum de Cn. Pisone patre". The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 120, No. 1 (1999), pp. 89–97.
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  • Woodman, Anthony John. Tacitus Reviewed (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998) ISBN 0-19-815258-2

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' TRIBULATION

66-73AD Jerusalem's Fall: "He takes away the First, that He may establish the Second" ~ Hebrews 10:9

Destruction-of-the-Temple-of-Jerusalem-2-610x351.jpg

David Roberts painting of the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.

"He takes away the First that He may establish the Second." ~Hebrews 10:9 NKJV

"But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem" ~Hebrews 12:21-22 NKJV

Timeline: 
' TRIBULATION

70AD Not One Stone Left Upon Another

Not One Stone Left Upon Another

The catastrophic fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 forever changed the face of Judaism—and the fate of Christians in the Holy Land.
by Paul L. Maier, from issue 97: The Holy Land


Jesus predicted it 37 years before it happened. Herod Agrippa II and his sister Bernice, who heard Paul's testimony at Caesarea (Acts 26), tried hard to prevent it, as did the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (our main source of first-century information). But the fall of Jerusalem and the burning of the Temple in A.D. 70 happened nevertheless, and it was a catastrophe with almost unparalleled consequences for Jews, Christians, and, indeed, all of subsequent history. It compelled a whole new vector for synagogue (not Temple) Judaism, it submerged the Jewish homeland for the next 19 centuries under foreign domination, it helped foster the split between church and synagogue, and it set the stage for rampant prophetic speculation about the End Times that continues to the present day. Few episodes in history have had that sort of impact.

The Jewish rebellion in A.D. 66 that ignited the war with Rome was by no means inevitable. Judaism was a legal religion in the Roman Empire, and Nero's own empress, Poppaea, was very interested in it. Contrary to biblical novels and movies, far worse things could happen to you in the ancient world than to be conquered by Rome. The Romans hung out the traffic lights in their sprawling empire, curbing piracy at sea and brigandage by land, thus providing security in the Mediterranean world. The apostle Paul's missionary journeys would have been impossible without the Pax Romana, the "Roman peace" that ordered society. As for the "horrors" of Roman taxation, I would much rather have paid the tribute to Rome as a citizen of Jerusalem than American income tax!

Still, Rome did have wayward governors who were not always disciplined, even if there was an extortion court set up for this purpose at Rome. Governors of Judea had a particularly difficult role, because according to Deuteronomy 17:15 it was heresy for any Gentile to govern God's people: "You must not put a foreigner over you who is not your brother." Nevertheless, the governors Rome sent to Judea in the first century were able enough, including Pontius Pilate, who could never have had a ten-year tenure there had he been the villain so familiar in sermons and novels.

Gessius Florus, however, Rome's last governor before the Jewish rebellion, made Pilate look like a paragon of virtue by comparison. Emperor Nero, perhaps distracted in the aftermath of the Great Fire of Rome, had not done a good job of screening overseas governors, and this wretch slipped through. Venal, corrupt, and brutal, Florus hoped that a Jewish rebellion would somehow cover his own crimes in Judea, and so he fomented discontent among his subjects wherever possible. Even the first-century Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus commented, "Jewish patience persisted until Gessius Florus became procurator" (History 5.10).

Justifiably outraged, Jerusalemites rose in revolt, even though Jews who had visited Rome warned that war would end in disaster because of Rome's overpowering resources. Zealots in Jerusalem—the "fourth party" after the Scribes, Pharisees, and Essenes, according to Josephus—carried the day, and the Jews won some surprising early victories against the Romans.

Until, that is, Commander Vespasian landed in Galilee with three legions. After that, it was a steady Roman advance southward into Judea, with Jewish strongholds falling one after another along the way. In fact, Vespasian was at the walls of Jerusalem when news reached him of the turmoil in Rome following Nero's death. Soon Rome's eastern legions declared Vespasian the new emperor. Before hurrying off to Rome in 69 to don imperial purple, he transferred command of the Jewish war to his own son Titus (also future emperor), who would complete the siege and destruction of Jerusalem.

The Burning of the Temple
With careful strategy and maximum resources, Titus finished the job in a matter of months, despite fierce Jewish resistance. Spurning all overtures for peace, the Zealots inside Jerusalem fought amongst themselves as much as against the Romans, while Titus surrounded the city with a siege wall and simply waited. The starvation inside Jerusalem was severe because many of the Judeans from the countryside had taken refuge there. It got so bad, Josephus wrote in The Jewish War (6.194ff.), that dove dung went for premium prices, and one poor woman even ate part of her own baby!

The best of friends wrestled with each other for even the shadow of food. Others, mouths agape from hunger like mad dogs, staggered along, beating on the doors like drunken men. … They put their teeth into everything, swallowing things even the filthiest animals would not touch. Finally they devoured even belts and shoes or gnawed at the leather they stripped from their shields.
After furious fighting inside Jerusalem, the Temple Mount finally fell to the Romans. According to Josephus, Titus had ordered that the Temple itself be spared (though some historians doubt this), but one of the Roman troops hurled a burning firebrand through a window of the Temple and it went up in flames anyway. The date, August 30 in the year 70, was the very day on which Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed the Temple in 586 B.C. What was left was torn down by the victors, almost in literal fulfillment of Jesus' famous statement, "Not one stone here will be left upon another" (Matthew 24:2). This was the catastrophic end of Temple Judaism.

Might it have been the end of Judaism itself? Possibly. The Romans, however, permitted a Jewish sage named Jochanan ben-Zakkai to be smuggled out of the Temple Mount in a casket. He virtually re-founded Judaism in a rabbinical school established at Jamnia near the Mediterranean. The previous central authority of the Temple was now transformed into the regional authority of the synagogue—a tradition that has remained to the present day. Also in Jamnia, the Jewish rabbis established the canon of 39 books in their Hebrew Bible—the Christian Old Testament—in the year 93.

The Bar-Kokhba Revolt
Josephus, our major source for all this information, does not name a single Christian victim in connection with great Jewish War. Why not? With immense luck—or blessing—the earliest Christians largely escaped all this horror for two reasons: (1) Only four years before the war's outbreak, James the Just of Jerusalem (the first Christian bishop according to both Acts 15 and Eusebius) was stoned to death by the Sanhedrin, which must certainly have led the struggling Jewish-Christian community to think about leaving. (2) Eusebius, the "father of church history," also tells us that Christians were warned by an oracle to flee the city some time before war's outbreak. In fact, they evacuated to Pella and other cities north of Jerusalem, and so escaped the Roman siege and conquest.

After the war, some Christians returned to Jerusalem, where they must have kept a low profile since Zealotry and the yeast of Messianism among the Jews led to one last tragic uprising in A.D. 132 under a rebel named Shimon Bar-Kosebah. Rabbi Akiba, the leading Jewish sage at the time, put Bar-Kosebah on a white horse, led him through the streets of Jerusalem, and cried, "The Messiah has come! The Messiah has come!" He also changed his name to "Bar-Kokhba," which means "Son of a Star" (showing us that the gospel writer Matthew did not invent the idea that the Star of Bethlehem was a messianic symbol for Jews).

When the Zealots learned that Hadrian, the Roman emperor at the time, planned to build a new temple to Jupiter on the ruins of the old Jewish Temple, they rose up in revolt. Hadrian had a very difficult time conquering these rebels, some of whom hid out in caves on the western coast of the Dead Sea, where letters written by Bar-Kokhba have been discovered. Some 580,000 Jews perished, and the Romans also suffered great losses until they finally conquered the rebels. Furious at this renewed Jewish uprising and without a shred of patience left, they dismantled Jerusalem and rebuilt the city as "Aelia Capitolina" in honor of Aelius, Hadrian's family name.

All Jews were expelled from the city, and only Gentiles were allowed to live there. (This exile was moderated later when first Jewish Christians and then also Jews slowly returned to the city.) The Roman province of Judea now became Syria Palaestina—further diminishing Judaism in favor of the Philistines who had battled Saul and David a millennium earlier. It remained "Palestine" up through the British mandate in the 20th century and among Arabs to this day.

In the second and third centuries, Aelia Capitolina (a.k.a. destroyed Jerusalem) showed barely a glint of its former glory. It was not a ghost town, but it was sequestered to the boondocks of the Roman Empire.

Church and Synagogue
An equal-opportunity desecrator, Hadrian attacked Christianity when he raised a shrine to Aphrodite adjacent to his new temple at the site of Golgotha, where Christians had held liturgical observances until they fled the city in A.D. 66. But in trying to desecrate the site, he merely helped identify it for later generations.

It is no surprise to learn from Aristo of Pella, an early Christian historian whose works are not extant, that the Jerusalem church after the Bar-Kokhba revolt was now composed almost entirely of Gentiles. In his Church History (5.12), Eusebius lists 12 Gentile bishops of Jerusalem following Mark, the first.

Early on, Christians in Jerusalem recognized the importance of the sites where biblical events took place. The early Christian apologist Justin Martyr (c. 100–c.165) was born of pagan parents in Nablus, Samaria, and after his conversion to Christianity knew the cave or grotto where Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Melito, bishop of Sardis, visited there in the 160s. The mightiest mind in early Christendom, Origen of Alexandria, spent the last part of his life (230-254) in Caesarea and regularly visited the sacred sites, including Bethlehem.

Slowly, Jews were allowed to return to their Holy City. But other centers of Judaism across the Mediterranean world, such as neighboring Alexandria in Egypt, Ephesus in Asia Minor, Athens, and even Rome, could now compete through their synagogues for the authority once held by the Jerusalem Temple. Those Jewish Christians who had not abandoned the Temple (such as those described in Acts) now had to look elsewhere for cohesion and authority. The split between Jews and Christians only widened in the future.

Both sides were responsible for this cleft. The first persecution of the church was by Jewish authorities in Jerusalem, and even the most cursory reading of Acts reveals the grief that Paul regularly received from synagogues along his mission journeys. Later, in some cities across the Mediterranean, Jews reported Christians to Roman authorities who had been lax in persecuting them. For their part, Christians attributed the destruction of Jerusalem to God's retribution against the Jews for having crucified Christ. Church and synagogue have gone their separate ways ever since. One can only conjecture as to what might have happened to Jews, Christians, and all of subsequent history had Jerusalem not fallen and the Temple endured.

Paul L. Maier is professor of ancient history at Western Michigan University and editor/translator of books by Josephus and Eusebius.

Copyright © 2008 by the author or Christianity Today International/Christian History & Biography magazine.
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Issue 97, Winter 2008, Vol. XXVIII, No. 1, Page 8

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