Jewish Revolt

[Theodosius the Great]

There's archaeological evidence, not unlike the evidence for the impoverishment of Italy prior to the Gracchan reforms.

I see. I was just curious if Josephus thought that economic hardship was a motivation for the movement. He seems to think they were little more than brigands which is hard to refute based on their actions.

The main point is that, IIRC, Josephus does not use the word "Zealot" prior to the sixties. The only Zealot I know in the first half of the first century, is Simon the Zealot, one of the Twelve. What kind of "fanatic" he was, we don't know. There's no need to assume violence.

So, we can't even be sure if the Zealot movement was primarily based in Galilee or if it was spread throughout Judea as well. If it was based in Galilee, which was not under Roman rule in the sixties, it's strange that they didn't direct their efforts against Agrippa II.

I agree. If I said so, I was mistaken.

I don't think you said so. I was reacting more to what Robert posted about Zealot atrocities.

Theodosius, this man was almost the sole reason why Judaea revolted :

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gessius_Florus

Overall I'm not sure why Florus would have been seen as worse than some of the prior Prefects. In the past the Jews would send embassies to Rome to complain about maladministration of their province. Nero would have been more receptive to such embassies than Caligula. So, I wonder if an embassy was sent to complain against Florus. The Judeans showed great restraint in opposing Caligula's plans for the Temple which seems far more outrageous not just to Judeans but to Jews everywhere. At least Florus did not control the Temple or appoint the High Priest. Agrippa did.

You are right that the zealots and Siccarii bands which turned Jerusalem into a blood soaked city before and whilst the Romans sieged it were a main cause of the Judaean revolt failing.

I would go further and say that those bands caused the war to drag on. If the towns in the north were not garrisoned by them and had just submitted to Vespasian well before his approach they would have been spared. Although I believe Vespasian's terror campaign was a mistake for all sides.

The entire idea of a nationalist movement is in my honest opinion an Israeli invention by amongst others Yadin who excavated Masada.

That recent? I would've guessed it originated in the 19th century at the latest.

The Jews did want to be free, and have their own rulers, even might have wanted to have a socius status towards Rome itself, but nationalism is a strange word to express what the Judaean rebels might have felt.

Agreed. I believe the sentiments you descibe were widely subscribed to but I doubt they amounted to serious aspirations. To think that these sentiments were motivations for the Revolt sounds like mere romanticism. The Zealots were a minority who made no permanent alliances with any other group as far as we can tell.

~Theo