The Jewish War: First half of Book 2

[cahn]

Last week: Discussion on how Herod stacked up against various Roman emperors in terms of body count of his nearest and dearest; how Friedrich Wilhelm might hear the Josephus text; Herod throwing money around; Cleopatra!

This week: ...uhhhh there was a lot going on and I haven't actually finished the reading yet *ducks* -- I am doing that right now and I should most likely be able to comment tomorrow. (I don't anticipate this being a problem again for at least two more months, and most likely not then either; this was a confluence of various time sinks that doesn't usually happen all at the same time.) But I wanted to go ahead and get the post up because I know you guys have read it... (ETA: have finished the reading now :P :) )

Next week: finishing up Book 2!

Comments

Finishing up with Herod's finances

[cenozoicsynapsid]

We finally (2.93) get a full accounting. I guessed high with "thousand(s)"; Herod's domain produces 200 (Galilee) + 100 (Batanea) + Judea/Idumaea/Samaria (400) + Jamnia and a few other cities (60) + random bequests and tax relief, for a total of around 800.

I wonder to what extent the colonies Herod founded had general tax relief policies as an incentive for people to move there. He seems to have an elite regiment from Sebaste (modern Nablus) and possibly some of his other Hellenized cities contribute troops in place of taxes, giving him a loyal base of Gentile troops in case he has to fight the Jews. He seems also to have Roman officers for some of these formations--- does anyone know if they would have used Roman-style drill and equipment as well?

Re: Finishing up with Herod's finances

[cahn]

Ah, that would be convenient to have some Gentile troops around! selenak do you know about the equipment?

Re: Finishing up with Herod's finances

[selenak]

No, but given that Herod is an ally and given that auxiliary troops have at this point been used for more than a century by the Roman army, he presumably should not find it too difficult to get his hands on some equipment (not for free, of course!) for his troops.

Re: Finishing up with Herod's finances

[cenozoicsynapsid]

Yeah, what equipment troops train with is not really a question of whether they can find it by this period. It's more whether Herod asks troops to 'show up, bring weapons' and gets whatever the local culturally sanctioned fighting style is, or whether he does some amount of drill and provides some equipment to get them to adopt a particular style. My impression is that if you just call up "soldiers" in this period, you get people who are equipped by the local blacksmith and taught to fight by their older brothers/uncles/dads, so you get big regional differences. But Romain auxilia (as selenak says) are drilled to fight in the legionary style instead, which makes them more effective.

Re: Finishing up with Herod's finances

[cahn]

Ah ok thanks! :D