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The Jews Against Rome: War in Palestine AD 66-73

by Susan Sorek (Author)

3.5 9 ratings

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This is the first book to examine the causes, events and consequences of a major conflict in ancient Palestine, and assess the accounts of its star witness, Josephus.
The Jewish war, culminating in the siege of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple, can be called the most significant event in Roman military history. The war demanded a massive concentration of forces and was the longest siege in the whole of the Imperial period. Lasting roughly five months it took four legions, twenty infantry cohorts, and eighteen thousand men supplied by four independent kings to affect a victory. In fact, the forces committed to the siege, were larger than those deployed for the invasion of Britain in AD 43.

The Jewish revolt was not inspired by any ideological objection on the part of the Jews toward Rome, nor any Roman anti-Semitism: instead a variety of underlying causes helped spark the revolt including social tensions, the divisions amongst the ruling class, the rise of banditry and poor harvests, and, perhaps most significantly, the apocalyptic storm brewing over 1st century Palestine.

All revolutions change history, whether they are successful or not, and the Jewish war against Rome in AD 66-73 was no exception - the ramifications were enormous and still have an impact on the world today. The revolt had a profound influence on the development of Judaism and Christianity. If this revolt had not occurred, two major religions would simply not exist, certainly not in their present forms. The other exceptional fact about the Jewish war is the extraordinary amount of information that has survived. For that we have to thank one man, Flavius Josephus, a Jew of Pharisaic origin and eyewitness to the events he describes. Born Joseph ben Mattiyahu, he held a command in Galilee during a pivotal stage of the revolt and was captured by the Romans. Eventually, through his skillful manipulation of events, he became a client and friend to the future Roman emperors, Vespasian and Titus and worked as a translator and mediator during the fateful siege of Jerusalem. To the Jews, he became a traitor.

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Sorek writes that scholars have concluded that the Jewish War, culminating in the siege of Jerusalem and destruction of the Temple, was the major event in Roman military history. The war demanded a massive concentration of forces and was the longest siege in the Imperial period, lasting five months. It involved 18,000 men supplied by four kings to achieve a victory. A variety of underlying causes helped trigger the revolt, including social tensions, bad procurators, the divisions among the ruling class, the rise of banditry, and poor harvests; but the most significant feature was the apocalyptical storm brewing over first-century Palestine. Sorek concludes that even though the revolution did not succeed, the ramifications were enormous and still impact the world today, primarily in the profound influence on the development of Judaism and Christianity. A compelling account. --George Cohen

About the Author

Susan Sorek is a research affiliate at the Open University, UK. Her volume The Jews Against Rome was published by Continuum in 2008.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bloomsbury Academic (September 30, 2008)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 196 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1847252486
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1847252487
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.5 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #647,824 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #73 in Middle Eastern History (Books)
- #152 in Ancient History (Books)
- #1,008 in Israel & Palestine History (Books)

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3.5 9 ratings

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Michael Freeman

Better Than Advertised

Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2023

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The book: JEWS AGAINST ROME I ordered arrived super fast and I found it to be of high quality than advertised, so thank you, thank you very much for your wonderful service and attention to quality!
Michael Freeman
Elizabethtown KY

Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2023

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I go out of my way to find hardback books. This one was badly, badly damaged. It was not from the shipping because the package for shipping had no damage whatsoever.

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charlene at Dosido Bookshelf

Right for my level

Reviewed in the United States on April 15, 2013

This book provides a readable narrative covering the last century or so of the second Temple period. This period is a hinge of history -- the final years of Temple Judaism and the founding years of Christianity. I learned a lot that I didn't know; and I was able to retain more of what I read than I often do because the book was not too scholarly and dense.

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Brent Hobson

Great seller! Highly recommended!!

Reviewed in the United States on April 14, 2020

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Excellent price and fast shipping. Would definitely recommend buying from them!

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lordhoot

Mildly interesting take on Josephus

Reviewed in the United States on October 26, 2008

Susan Sorek's book, The Jews against Rome is somewhat of a summary account of Josephus' own book on the subject. As a result, this book doesn't wander too far off from what Josephus wrote. The book also appears to be a semi-biography on Josephus as well. While the author don't seem to be too high on Josephus overall, she appears to conclude that his accounts were relatively accurate.

The book traced the origins of the Jewish Revolt and gives summary accounts of what happened and why. She goes back to King Herod in her background pages but mostly faulted poor Roman administration and personal in agitating the Jewish population. But her own account lack in-depth details and she relied far too much on Josephus' accounts to supplement her own. Her own accounts doesn't covered in details, for example, the differences between the Jewish military organization and the Romans'.

I would considered this book to be a worthy introductory material to the subject but only toward someone who is totally a novice to the subject matter. Anyone else who have any familiarity with this subject will probably find the book somewhat boring, especially if he or she have read Josephus already, and that is the book that must be read before any real understanding of this war begin.

3 people found this helpful

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Roberto

Disappointing

Reviewed in the United States on August 7, 2009

I was very disappointed by this book. Basically, it followed Josephus' account, and while it might be easier to read "The Jews Against Rome" than the original, I wouldn't say it's an easy read. That's because the author gets bogged down in the details. This is not what history should be - a fascinating story. It's more "one thing happened after the other." There is no big picture in this book, which is a shame given the importance of this war both in Jewish and Roman history. Moreover, the writing style is obtuse and often difficult to follow. The author's over-reliance on pronouns rather than proper names forces the reader to often go back several paragraphs to understand whom she is talking about or what place she is referring to. (As an example, on the top of p. 47 she refers to "the city," but it's not clear which city it is.) There are lots of other problems in the writing, and editing, of this book. The author has a very interesting chapter on the battle of Jotapata, which gives the reader an excellent feeling for the reality of battles in antiquity. However, Jotapata is not included on the only map in the book! Then - after spending an entire chapter on this issue, she refers to it as Yodefat (which isn't on the map either). Other proper names also change during the book. Indeed the map and the text have different spellings of the same places, making it very difficult to follow. Is Joppa the same as Joppe (Yafo)? Why is Ashkelon also Ascalon?
The author consistently uses the verb "to fire" to mean "to set fire." I've searched several dictionaries and haven't found to fire as a verb in any sense aside that of firing an employee. The use of Anglo Saxon translations of Hebrew names is comical. The Jews are referred to by names such as John, James, Peter and Philip. I really couldn't help but think of Monty Python when the author paints a picture of James in ancient Judea fighting the Romans (all referred to by their Latin names). On p. 141 she writes about Alexander Jannaeus "who was known in Hebrew as Jonathan." Well, no. He was known in English as Jonathan, but in Hebrew he was known as Yonatan. The use of b. instead of "ben" (except, for some strange reason, in the case of Eleazar ben Yair!) is also strange. While this is often standard practice it only requires one more stroke of the keyboard to use the correct name. The author also confuses who and whom several times (e.g. the first paragraph on p. 47). Other times words are simply missing from the text (e.g. the first paragraph on p. 93).
There is so much that is unclear in this text. For example, one important sentence on p. 113 reads, "Vespasian then left for Antioch to deal with matters in Syria, instead of advancing west he moved his headquarters to Alexandria in Egypt and promptly cut off the grain supply to Rome." If he moved to Antioch how did he go to Alexandria? If he didn't go West how did he move his headquarters from the Levant to Egypt?
The author refers to Josephus' story about a mother eating her child (and offering half of the baby to a passing requisition squad). While the author notes that this story can't be verified I find it very surprising that the author says that it is "certain" that "such unspeakable acts were not uncommon." Really? Not "uncommon" that mothers roast their children? The author might have chosen her words more carefully and spoke instead of the desperation of the people faced with famine.
This should have been a fascinating read, particularly for someone like me who reads a great deal of Roman history, but knows little about this extremely important episode. Unfortunately, the author never makes it come to life and one must really ask where the editor was.

8 people found this helpful

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Randy Kadish

Fair and Balanced Account of the War Against Rome

Reviewed in the United States on January 29, 2009

I just finished reading Susan Sorek's short book: THE JEWS AGAINST ROME. I think this is an excellent easy-read about the war, and recommend it to anyone who is interested in a war that changed the course of history.

Ms. Sorek often analyzes the many conflicting accounts of the war in Josephus's books. She does this fairly and allows the reader to reach his/her own conclusions.

She also reads between Josephus's lines and examines many of the causes of the war, including class conflict, and the possible role of the Jewish aristocracy.

Randy

6 people found this helpful

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frothy

not for the novice

Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2010

The title is a little misleading as this book is not really about the Jewish Revolt of 66-73 AD but about how accurately Josephus portrayed it. Since Josephus' Jewish War is the main source of information we have for the revolt this is an important question. A thorough grasp of Josephus' writings as well as some background knowledge of the period is advisable before starting this book.

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RobJay

Interesting account

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 1, 2017

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Interesting account of a little understood period in early Christian history, not that Christians, then a very small minority, had any significant part to play in the uprising

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