To the Death (4 page)

“Agrippa is an Idumaean pig guilty of incest”, grated Eleazar. “We shall let them find his foul and polluted carcase with the rest of the garbage in the Hinnom valley – killed, of course, by the Romans; perhaps by the procurator himself during one his murderous actions against the people”.

Amal poured warm oil onto the priest's fleshy back and began to massage it hard. Eleazar grunted with pleasure. As she worked, Amal thought about what she has just learned. “Rome”, she thought to herself “will win in the end. She has to. A successful rebellion would signal her weakness. The empire would be overrun by her subject nations”.

She regarded what Eleazar had just told her as madness, but she knew it was unstoppable. Dissent, dissatisfaction, resentment, was everywhere. It was in the very air one breathed. “The gates of war”, her mother had once told her “are easy to open but very difficult to close”.

How could she survive the coming storm, for she had intuitively decided that even Eleazar could not win? If his own people didn't get him, the Romans would. They wouldn't differentiate between loyal and disloyal Jews.

Berenice! If she could be persuaded that what Eleazar had told her was true, she would be grateful. She might even acknowledge kinship. A plan began to form in Amal's mind. The death of James had angered her, but she hadn't dared show it. His preaching had reached her. In secret and with infinite care, she had gathered information about the fate of the new Jewish sect who called themselves Christians. James had touched her heart when he retold the teaching of his brother Jesus.

With the Jews about to rebel against the Romans it was time, she decided to herself, to change sides.

3

G
essius
Florus loathed Palestine. A freedman of Rome who had been fortunate in his marriage to a senator's daughter, Florus had hoped for better things than a posting as procurator to Judaea. The only bright spot on an otherwise gloomy horizon was that his immediate superior, Cestius Gallus, was
Legate
of Syria.

Gallus shared with Florus a contempt for all Jews and everything Jewish. Both men regarded their appointments as an opportunity to become very rich, providing they diligently stripped the Hebrew nation of everything it possessed, and selling as slaves those Jews that had nothing of value. While Florus was systematically looting the country, Gallus didn't just look the other way, he openly supported his procurator, for which he was paid a percentage of every stolen shekel.

To add to their misery the people were harried by bands of outlaws who, taking advantage of Florus' disregard of the people's rights, stole anything that wasn't nailed down. Inevitably nationalist movements began to exploit these unstable conditions. These so called freedom fighters comprised a number of movements and factions, usually at odds with one another, who frequently attacked each other's villages.

The nationalists had competition from minor warlords and the criminal scum that were their followers. These bandits attacked villages stealing anything of value, raping the women and killing every living thing, before burning the place to the ground.

Florus did nothing about the warlords who roamed the country, providing they gave him a cut. As Florus' compliance was cheap at half the price, they were happy to pay him off.

Florus' attitude to the nationalists was different. It had to be. They were busy ambushing and killing Roman soldiers. They also murdered Jews who were Roman citizens of high standing who supported Rome. The procurator regarded the nationalists as a personal enemy as well as the enemy of Rome (they were raising funds through extortion - money which he regarded as being rightfully his and not even paying him tribute). Frustratingly, he found moving against them difficult.

They were an enemy who struck when least expected, and then vanished to merge with the general populace, proving to be an exasperatingly elusive opponent. They did, however, provide him with an excuse for his brutally oppressive treatment of the whole population.

Should a complaint be made to Rome about his behaviour, they would be his cover. He would defend his actions by simply claiming that it was necessary to contain the numerous resistance movements. After all, they constantly attacked his forces. It was his duty to deal ruthlessly with criminal acts of subversion and terror. Weren't his soldiers, officials and Jewish citizens of influence being murdered because they were loyal subjects of the Emperor? Confident that his position was unassailable, Florus set about systematically looting the country.

Squeezed relentlessly from all sides, the Jews were becoming desperate as well as angry. Men who worked from sun-up to sun-down were worse off than slaves. Their families starved as the corn they had grown was bagged and carted away, either by tax collectors, freedom fighters, the so called nationalists, or outlaws.

When a band of outlaws raided a town or village, they were after food and money. If the luckless citizens claimed not to have any, they were tortured, often to death. Men and women were made to dig up the floors of their homes. If no money was found, the disgruntled bandits would frequently beat a man to death, first buggering his children and raping his wife in front of him.

Not even Jerusalem was safe. The Sicarii hunted in broad daylight, stalking their victims in the streets. People were struck down without mercy. Often the victims had refused demands to pay protection money. People were killed, maimed, blinded and turned into helpless cripples if they failed to pay up.

With the country in turmoil, Florus suddenly descended on the Holy City and stole seventeen talents of silver from the Corban, the Temple treasury, on the pretext he was claiming this vast sum for Rome in lieu of unpaid taxes. The high priests were outraged, accusing the Romans of theft.

The city erupted. The people, goaded beyond endurance and whipped to a frenzy by the nationalists, rioted. This created the opportunity Florus had long hoped for. He now had an excuse to legitimately use force against the civilian population of Jerusalem. His orders were to spare no-one. The troops were ordered to kill every Jew they encountered, irrespective of age or sex.

When the soldiers entered the city's Upper Market area, they were met by a large crowd led by nationalists who exhorted the people to resist Florus' men. Ordinary citizens armed with makeshift weapons, clubs, knives, iron bars, found themselves facing well-armed, well trained, seasoned troops who cut them to pieces.

There then followed a running battle, bitterly fought through the city's twisting narrow streets. The Romans advanced in an orderly fashion, shields locked. Their short stabbing swords, designed for close quarter work, chopped and stabbed until the gutters were running with blood.

Behind Florus' relentlessly advancing swordsmen, Roman soldiers skilled in the javelin hurled their shafts over the heads of their comrades. Thrown in unison, spears rained down onto the densely packed Jews with deadly effect. In the grim struggle people shouted, cursed and wept, as they fought to stay alive. Screams of agony pierced the air as weapons found their mark.

Women and children, who had taken refuge in the shops and houses lining these narrow lanes, were forced into the open. Like frightened hares flushed from cover, they ran about in panic, searching for a means of escape, children clinging to their skirts and babies clutched to their breasts. But the press of bodies was so great it was impossible to move in any specific direction. Sick with fear they struggled to stay on their feet and keep their children with them. The Romans remorselessly hacked their way forward. Terrified mothers, finding themselves at the front of the crowd, knelt holding their babies before them and begged for mercy.

They and their children were not just killed. They were butchered. Infants were speared and carried as trophies for a few yards before being contemptuously tossed into the mob. Soldiers wielding swords were carmined from helmet to hip with blood. It ran down their faces and dripped from their chins. They advanced on the terrified Jews struggling ineffectively to escape. Like a blood red hydra of a thousand arms and hands, each armed with a hacking and chopping blade, the Roman forces advanced remorselessly, a monstrous body bristling with spears and lances thrusting, twisting and stabbing in every direction.

When the slaughter burst out of the souk's narrow alleys and tumbled the Jews into a large square, the Hebrews threw down their makeshift weapons and dropped to their knees. Arms raised in surrender, they begged for mercy.

Florus replied by sending in his cavalry. The effect was similar to that of a combine harvester being driven at speed through a wheat field. Heads, arms and legs were sheared from the defenceless people and tossed every which way.

Numb with shock they knelt, staring with unseeing eyes as the Roman cavalry charged them repeatedly. Eventually the Romans were forced to call a halt. The footing for their horses had become dangerous because of the soft going. Like a layer of mud, the plaza's paving slabs were covered ankle deep with blood, faeces and human offal.

When the Roman commander brought the action to an end and declared order restored, he took stock of his losses. The Roman casualties numbered five dead and about one hundred wounded. On the Jewish side five thousand had been killed and a thousand more were wounded, many so seriously they would die later.

4

J
erusalem
was full to bursting. Every room in the city that could be let had been taken. In addition to the thousands of Jews that had travelled from all over Palestine to be in the Holy City for Passover, another million pilgrims had arrived from abroad.

To accommodate them a temporary town had been established near the olive groves outside the city wall. As well as huts and tents for people, pens for animals had been constructed. The city authorities, well used to this annual influx, had built latrines, organised the management of rubbish, provided a conduit of fresh water and policed the whole operation, protecting the pilgrims from petty crime and settling the inevitable domestic disputes that arose.

It was this carpet of huts and tents unrolled outside the city walls that Cestius Gallus, appointed by Rome as
Legate
of Syria, had to negotiate before entering the city. The
Legate
decided to visit Jerusalem because Florus had reported unrest, which he had been forced to put down, making an example of the trouble makers. Gallus and his legionaries had passed over a hundred crucifixion sites during the last few miles, their putrefying burdens and attendant clouds of vultures, crows and kites, grim evidence of Florus' response to unrest.

The
Legate
had also noted that in his report, the procurator recorded that if he had any more trouble he would take stern measures. Gallus didn't doubt for a minute that his procurator would keep his word. The thousands of pilgrims pouring into the Holy City had not come with empty wallets. As well as having brought funds to sustain them for a round trip, they had also brought offerings for their God, which they would make at the Temple. The
Legate
knew that Florus would find a way of diverting some of this abundance into his own coffers. Gallus, with an eye to protecting his cut, had made the journey from Syria. He would pretend to listen to the people's complaints. It was important that, insofar as Rome was concerned, he was seen to be diligent in fulfilling the duties of his office. He knew that there was always the possibility that Florus would go too far. Gold had the same effect on him as the scent of blood to a shark.

Among his staff officers Gallus had a young
tribune
, Neopolitanus, to whom he had shown favour because of his connections. He was related on his mother's side to the late Emperor Claudius. So a flattered young officer found himself sitting on a horse next to his commanding officer approaching the Holy City. As Jerusalem came into sight, Neopolitanus was amazed. The descriptions he had been given in Rome hadn't prepared him for the splendour that was coming into view.

It was early morning and the sun flashed in a blinding reflection off the roof of the Temple. Rising a hundred and fifty feet into the air, it seemed to float in the pale blue sky like a pure white cloud, capped with burnished gold. To Neopolitanus the massive building seemed like a mountain covered in snow, its peak crowned with a fiery splendour. Those parts that were not plated with sheets of solid gold were of a brilliant white marble, polished to a mirror finish.

Gallus broke the silence. “A million Jews have gathered to pay homage to their God. What you see before you is His Temple”. Before the
tribune
could reply Gallus continued, “Every Jewish pilgrim would consider it a privilege to die defending the dirt of the road you are standing on, so be careful
tribune
when you are in the city, and doubly careful when you are anywhere near the Temple”. Neopolitanus assured him he would follow this advice.

“I'm not giving you advice
tribune
”, had been the dry rejoinder. “I'm giving you an order. Walk softly, be slow to take offence and watch your manners. Jews are quick to take umbrage, particularly over religious matters which they never give ground on. Ever. No matter what the consequences”. Neopolitanus gave his commanding officer earnest assurances that he would be most circumspect in his dealing with the Jews, as he admired the magnificence of the city they were approaching. Gallus said, “Just pray that you never have to assault it, because if you do you will fail. The Jews consider it to be impregnable and I agree with them. When we get to the Antonia fortress, ask the duty officer to explain the city's fortifications to you”.