Garrison of Jerusalem - AD30

[Matthew Amt]

Ave!<br>
As I understand it, the problem with these theories is not only that there is no evidence (my favorite word!) of a legion being in Judea prior to 66, but in fact there is good reason to believe that there was NOT a legion there. Primarily, Judea was an equestrian province, so it was governed by an equestrian (knight), who would have been outranked by the legatus of any legion (i.e., a senator). We know Pilate was subordinate to the governor of Syria. That's about as close as you can get to proving a negative (unless you dig up a carving saying "Legio X Fret did NOT sleep here", hee hee!).<br>
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As to the timing of the rebellion, I'd have to let someone with more info take that one (Sander?). But I expect the Jewish leaders were fully aware of which units were where, and that the nearest heavy force was in Syria. They could very well have known that a war somewhere else was a good opportunity for their own party.<br>
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We have to be very careful about figuring out the "best" ways to do things--time and again we find out that the ancients didn't think like us (even considering the benefit of our hindsight!). If Judea had been such a chronic hotspot that the few auxiliary cohorts couldn't handle it, it would have been changed to a senatorial province and assigned a legion (as happened once the war was concluded).<br>
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Vale,<br>
Matthew/Quintus <p></p><i></i>