cahn | The Jewish War: Book 7

The last book!

Last week: Astrological phenomena and the star of Bethlehem. Messianic (?) prophecy about Vespasian. Brutality of the siege, and discussion of the law of war protecting prisoners from the enemy army (or lack thereof). Imperator.

This week: Book 7. Wrapping up of the war. The Masada fortress and group suicide (which I think is interesting to think about given the discussion we had a few books back). The temple of Onias. (Dedicated commment threads for both of these below, for anyone who wants to join in!)

Yay book club, thank you everyone!

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From:

cahn

Caesar ordered the army to raze to the ground the whole city and the temple, leaving the towers and some of the wall.

Titus tells his troops how great they are, in a passage that really hits weirdly to me right after all this devastation (probably way less weird to Roman readers). Simon hides away in underground tunnels but eventually realizes his food is running out and comes out and gets caught. This sounds very like what Josephus did before but in his case is "just retribution for the cruelty shown to his fellow-citizens under his own merciless despotism." (I guess Josephus points out that the difference here is that Simon put people to death for doing the same thing before, whereas presumably Josephus didn't.)

Meanwhile, Jews in Antioch, Syria are having issues. There are a lot of Jews in Syria at this time. This (high-ranking Jewish) guy Antiochus, right after war is declared (and Vespasian sailed for Syria), says there's a conspiracy to burn down the city. Jews who don't convert as proof of their non-conspirator nature are killed. Guess who gets to become dictator of all the remaining Jews. Anyway, that was obviously a bit of a while back, but then an actual fire breaks out and Antiochus blames the Jews. But it turns out to be criminals being pressed for their debts who thought that if they burnt the market and the public records they could not be pursued for repayment, which, okay, I honestly think is kind of hilarious, or would be if it hadn't got blamed on other people. Way to make things worse, guys.

Meanwhile, Vespasian goes to Rome and everyone loves him. Josephus also talks about Vespasian having an "outstanding military record," to which the footnote says, "now that the contquest of Judaea could be added to his military achievements in Britain in AD43-4... over a quarter of a century earlier," which I also kind of think is blackly hilarious.

Meanwhile (Josephus really does seem to jump around a lot in this chapter! I guess there's a lot of stuff happening in different places) Germans are revolting. Because they hate Romans but also they are incapable of any sober assessment and ready to rush into action with minimal chance of success. (Sorry,

selenak!) Domitian Caesar, who clearly did not have the reputation then that I have in my brain, courageously set off to confront the barbarians at which point they collapse and surrender. Their fear of him proved their salvation, allowing them to accept reimposition of the same yoke without disastrous loss. Hmm Josephus are you trying to make a point maybe?? Also the Sarmatians attack but are quickly dealt with.

Titus' triumphal procession goes through Antioch, and they ask if they can expel their Jews. He says no, because "their own country, to which as Jews they would have to be repatriated, has been destroyed, and no other place would now accept them." Ouch. That's... ouch. Anyway, he leaves and goes through Jerusalem again and is sad. he would never have wished the terrible consequences of their punishment to be the public face of his character. This does hit interestingly if we assume, as

selenak mentioned a couple of weeks ago, that it's written at least partially to Berenice... anyway, he continues on to Alexandria, and from there sails to Rome to much acclamation, the spectacle of which Josephus describes for a while. (My favorite bit, unsurprisingly: transparent gems, worked into golden crowns or other settings, were carried past in such a plethora of examples that we realized how wrong we had been to assume the rarity of any of them.) Simon is carried thence and executed.

Josephus: Now let's talk about Machaerus.
Me: What? Why?
Helpful footnote: The focus of the narrative shifts back to Judaea and the military operations to eradicate remaining areas of rebellion. These campaigns involved considerable Roman forces, but, since the emepror had already proclaimed victory over Judaea, Roman propaganda was silent about them, and they are known only from the account by Josephus in Bellum Judaicum. The description of the triumph and celebrations in Rome would have worked well as the culmination of the history of the war, and it is puzzling that Josephus chose to continue the story --
Me: That's what I'm saying!
Selena: Yes, but what about Masada?
Helpful footnote: -- Ahem -- Josephus had noted already at 4.555 that Herodium, Masada, and Machaerus remained in rebel hands in May AD 69 after other fortresses had been captured and the way was clear to attack Jerusalem.
Me: Okay.

Anyway... the new legate to Judaea, Bassus, is sent to attack the Machaerus fortress and take it out. Josephus tells us cool natural history of the place, including the root Baaras with demon-expulsion properties but which you can't touch without dying. (So you pick it by geting a dog to touch it instead. Then it's OK.) Anyway, this dude Eleazar gets carried off by the Romans, and Bassus convinces them to surrender the fortress in exchange for the guy's life. Eleazar asks them to and also to save their own lives as well by submitting to the power and the destiny of Rome -- and the Jews uncharacteristically gave in to compassion -- mm. Josephus definitely has no feelings himself about this whole thing. Yes. Anyway. I am unsure as to what happens next because Josephus needs to give me more pronoun antecedents, but I think there are non-Jewish (?) people in the lower town who learn of the surrender thing and they decide to run for freedom. Those people get away, but everyone else gets massacred except for the people Bassus made the agreement with. Anyway... there's another bunch of escapees from Jerusalem and Machaerus at the forest called Jardes, and Bassus cuts down the trees and kills all the Jews. Titus takes all Jewish land for his own private state.

In Vespasian's fourth year as emperor: the governor of Syria (Paetus) says the king of Commagene, Antiochus (a differnt one from above), wants to revolt. So Paetus puts it down and Antiochus runs away, eventually ending up in Rome and reconciling with Caesar. Also the Alani go on a raid. I have not the faintest idea what this bit has to do with anything, and neither do the notes.

OK, now Bassus dies and is replaced as governor by Flavius Silva. Silva marches against Masada, occupied by the Sicarii and headed by another guy named Eleazar. We get some history of Masada, which Herod put a lot of supplies into to prepare against Cleopatra (that floozy, as we've discussed -- Antony's "miserably slavish infatuation" for her mentioned) and/or the Jewish people wanting to depose him (neither of these actually having happened). After some back and forth, Silva decides to set fire to the wall, which almost goes badly for the Romans but then the wind changes and the fire engulfs the wall. Eleazar decides all must die (and of course makes a speech about it). I'll write a separate comment about that, in case

lannamichaels or anyone else decides to step in. So anyway, they go ahead and go with the whole group suicide thing, with a different lottery rule than the one Josephus used: ten of them being the executioner for the rest, then one of them to kill the ten remaining, which is a much less interesting mathematical problem. The last guy sets fire to the whole place. So they all die except for two women, one of whom also managed to save her five children, which... does rather give the lie to Eleazar's "that is what our wives and children implore us to do" rhetoric (again, more on that in the separate comment).

That's Masada. Some of the Sicarii end up in Alexandria and start another revolutionary movement there, which ends up with them captured. Vespasian says to demolish the temple in Alexandria that

cenozoicsynapsid noted was mentioned in Book 1, and I'll have another comment about that (with cenozoicsynapsid's comment linked) because I'm hoping to get

seekingferret to chime in as he just recently posted about the temple of Onias! The governor of the Libyan Pentapolis, Catullus, accuses some Jews of sedition and kills a bunch of them; the accused include Josephus, which I feel must be a big reason why this even shows up in the first place, as it seems like a weird place to end the book. But there it ends. The success of its literary expression must be left to the judgement of its readers, but as for its accuracy, I would not hesitate to claim with confidence that throughout the whole narrative I have aimed at nothing but the truth.

Edited Date: 2026-05-04 03:41 am (UTC)

From:

cahn

Interestingly to our previous discussion, Eleazar talks about "our wives dying unmolested, our children innocent of slavery" and also talks about them feeling almost delight at thinking of "such a noble death" -- maybe that "unmolested" and "noble" is Roman culture speaking? Or: of course Josephus is not in favor of this, so who knows but that he is just giving Eleazar words he doesn't agree with?

Another bit: "Let us die unenslaved by the enemy, and let us all, together with our children and wives, leave this life as free men. This is what our law prescribes, this is what our wives and children implore us to do." Okay, now that I know from

cenozoicsynapsid and

lannamichaels that the law actually forbids this rather than prescribes it, I have got to think that Josephus is just giving Eleazar the villain role here, perhaps in a way that a Roman would not twig to but that a Jewish person would?? Maybe??

I also think this bit is interesting. "Despite the warmth of family affection which was still strong in all of them, reason -- that this was the best option for their loved ones -- triumphed over emotion." Mm-hmm.

From:

cahn

Link to

cenozoicsynapsid's comment about it in the first book

seekingferret just mentioned it here: https://seekingferret.dreamwidth.org/450404.html

I'm just going to cut and paste Josephus' whole thing about the temple of Onias here. (I don't actually have a ton to say myself, but maybe others will??)

Wary of the Jews’ constant appetite for revolution, and fearing the possibility of another concentration of Jewish resistance which could draw in others too, Caesar instructed Lupus to demolish the temple which the Jews possessed in the district named after Onias.

422 This is a place in Egypt which was settled and given its name under the following circumstances. 423 Onias the son of Simon was one of the chief priests at Jerusalem. He had to make his escape when Antiochus, the king of Syria, launched his campaign against the Jews, and he came to Alexandria, where Ptolemy, a sworn enemy of Antiochus, gave him a friendly welcome. Onias told Ptolemy that he could bring the whole Jewish nation into alliance with him if he would agree to a proposal he had to make. 424 The king promised to do whatever was in his power, and Onias then asked him for permission to build a temple somewhere in Egypt where God could be worshipped in the ancestral Jewish tradition. 425 This, he said, would make the Jews yet more hostile to Antiochus, who had sacked their temple in Jerusalem, and more friendly to himself: large numbers would flock to him to enjoy freedom of worship.

426 Ptolemy was persuaded by this proposal, and granted Onias a site twenty miles from Memphis in the borough of Heliopolis. 427 Here Onias built a fort, and then constructed his temple out of huge stones, not on the pattern of the Jerusalem temple, but more like a tower, rising to a height of 90 feet. 428 He designed the altar, though, to replicate the one in his home country, and equipped his temple with similar fittings, except for the design of the lampstand: 429 instead of a fixed stand he had a lamp made out of gold which gave its light suspended from a golden chain. 430 The whole precinct was enclosed by a wall of baked brick, with gateways built of stone. The king also granted Onias a large estate to generate an income which would provide ample maintenance for the priests and many other of the requisites for the worship of God. 431 In all this, though, there was nothing altruistic in Onias’ motive. Still harbouring a grudge for his exile, his aim was to set up as a rival to the Jerusalem Jews, and he thought that the establishment of this temple would act as a magnet to attract the ordinary people away from them. 432 And there had been an ancient prediction made some 600 years earlier by the prophet called Isaiah, who foretold the provision of this temple in Egypt by a man of Jewish birth. So that was how the temple came to be built.

433 On receipt of Caesar’s written instructions Lupus, the governor of Alexandria, proceeded to the temple, and after removing some of the offerings dedicated there shut up the building. 434 Lupus died shortly afterwards and was replaced in office by Paulinus. He stripped the temple completely of its offerings, threatening the priests with severe consequences if they did not produce them all, forbade any access to the precinct by intending worshippers, 435 then locked the gates and made the whole site a prohibited area, so not even a vestige of divine worship was now left in the place. 436 The time from the building of the temple to its closure was 343 years.

Edited Date: 2026-05-04 03:56 am (UTC)