Siege of Jerusalem (70 CE)
In the summer of 70 CE, on the tenth day of the Jewish month of Av, a Roman soldier hurled a burning piece of wood into the northern chamber of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. The fire that followed consumed one of the most magnificent structures in the ancient world. The historian Josephus claims that 1.1 million people perished in the siege that preceded it, and 97,000 more were enslaved. Whether or not those numbers are exact, the scale of what happened in Jerusalem that year was staggering.
Titus, son of the new emperor Vespasian, had arrived with a force estimated at a minimum of 48,200 soldiers. Inside the city, three rival Jewish factions were simultaneously fighting each other and trying to resist Rome. The population had swelled with refugees and Passover pilgrims who became trapped as the Romans closed the ring.
What destroyed Jerusalem was not simply the power of Rome. It was also months of internal war, famine so severe that a woman named Maria from Perea roasted and ate her infant son, and crucifixions so frequent that the Romans reportedly ran short of crosses. How did one of the most celebrated cities of the ancient world come to this? And what did its destruction leave behind?
Roman author Pliny the Elder called Jerusalem "by far the most famous city of the East". The historian Tacitus described it as "the capital of the Jews", with a temple of "enormous reaches". On the eve of the revolt, the city covered about 450 acres, nearly twice the area of today's Old City, and housed tens of thousands of residents.
King Herod, who ruled Judaea between 37 and 4 BCE, had transformed the Temple into one of the largest sanctuaries of the ancient world. The temple complex functioned not only as a religious center but also as a marketplace and a venue for popular assemblies and judicial proceedings. An obligatory half-shekel tax was collected annually from Jewish adults across the Roman world to support it. During the three annual Pilgrimage Festivals, tens of thousands of visitors traveled from both Judaea and abroad to participate in temple rituals.
The city's defenses matched its prestige. Jerusalem's eastern flank was protected by the Kidron Valley and its southern flank by the Hinnom Valley. Three walls, built over centuries, enclosed successive expansions of the city. The innermost, the First Wall, dated back to the second century BCE. A Second Wall protected newer commercial districts. A Third Wall, begun by King Herod Agrippa to enclose the northern suburb of Bezetha, was halted by Emperor Claudius and finished in haste at the outbreak of the revolt. At the northwest corner of the Temple Mount stood the Antonia Fortress, an imposing military stronghold overlooking the entire complex.
Yet for all its fortifications, the city had a structural weakness: it could not feed itself. Jerusalem depended on imported food from Judea, Samaria, Galilee, and beyond, and its water supply relied on pools and channels, including an aqueduct from the vicinity of Bethlehem. As refugees flooded in during the war, these limitations became fatal.
The revolt began in spring 66 CE, when Roman procurator Gessius Florus seized temple funds in Jerusalem, sparking widespread unrest and a massacre of civilians. After the Roman garrison was killed and the radical Sicarii faction withdrew to Masada, the governor of Syria, Gaius Cestius Gallus, advanced on the city with roughly 30,000 soldiers. He then retreated unexpectedly and was ambushed at Bethoron, losing nearly an entire legion. That defeat gave the Jewish rebels a window to organize.
From 67 CE onward, Roman general Vespasian conducted a methodical campaign across the surrounding region, subduing rebel strongholds one by one, before Nero's suicide in 68 CE threw Rome into the chaos of the Year of the Four Emperors. Vespasian postponed the assault on Jerusalem to let the Jewish factions exhaust themselves.
By spring 69 CE, three men effectively controlled different parts of the city. John of Gischala held most of the Temple Mount and the southeastern hill. Eleazar ben Simon held the temple's inner court. Simon bar Giora, commanding the largest force, dominated the rest of the city. According to Josephus, a Jewish commander and eyewitness who later chronicled the revolt under Roman patronage, Jerusalem descended into a three-way civil war. Tacitus likewise noted that the city was divided among three generals and three armies.
The factions burned the city's own food stores during the fighting, destroying provisions crucial for the siege that was coming. The destruction of those supplies, more than any single Roman assault, condemned the population to starvation. When Titus finally arrived, the city was already hollowed out from within.
In early Nisan 70 CE (March/April), Titus left Caesarea with two legions and marched toward Jerusalem through Samaria, resting his force in Gophna, located 13 miles north of the city. Legio V Macedonica approached via Emmaus from the west. Legio X Fretensis, led by A. Larcius Lepidus Sulpicianus, advanced from the east through Jericho. Following the strategic precedent of Sennacherib, Nebuchadnezzar II, Pompey, and Herod before him, Titus concentrated his assault on Jerusalem's north and northeast, the only sides not protected by ravines.
His second-in-command was Tiberius Julius Alexander, a Jewish-born equestrian general who had renounced his faith and ancestral traditions. The combined force also included Syrian irregulars, auxiliaries from allied vassal kings, and, according to Tacitus, "a strong force of Arabs" driven by longstanding enmity toward the Jews.
The three rival factions inside the city briefly set aside their war when the Romans began battering the walls. But the truce was limited. On 14 Nisan, the start of Passover, John of Gischala used the opening of the temple's inner gates to overpower Eleazar ben Simon's Zealots and seize control of the inner court. The internal conflict continued even as Roman siege engines hammered the outer walls.
After fifteen days of failed attempts to burn the Roman siege engines, the battering ram breached the Third Wall. The Romans then broke through the Second Wall but were driven back by Jewish defenders exploiting their knowledge of the city's narrow alleys. Four days later, they returned, widened the breach, and took the area, razing the northern section of the city. The siege ramps were then constructed against the Antonia Fortress, while Titus employed psychological pressure: a four-day parade of cavalry and infantry in polished armor, publicly distributing their pay before the walls, intended to demonstrate the futility of continued resistance.
Josephus served as Titus's envoy, addressing the defenders in what he called their "ancestral tongue", likely Hebrew or possibly Aramaic. He argued that Rome had respected Jewish holy sites and that God now favored the Romans. He compared himself to the prophet Jeremiah and cited Jewish history from the Exodus to the return from the Babylonian exile, urging surrender to spare the temple and the people's families. He was met with mockery and thrown objects.
Within the city, conditions had become catastrophic. The factions attacked those trying to flee and looted wealthy homes for food, often resorting to torture. Grain prices soared. People scavenged for scraps in the sewers. Josephus mentions children with swollen bellies and deserters who appeared to suffer from dropsy. A passage in Lamentations Rabbah recounts how Eleazar bar Zadok's father's body never fully recovered, even many years after the destruction. Another passage from the same work describes a woman whose hair fell out from malnutrition.
Outside the walls, the Romans tortured and crucified fugitives within sight of the defenders, sometimes positioning them in varied ways for the soldiers' amusement. Josephus reports that executions sometimes exceeded 500 per day, eventually depleting the available supply of crosses. Syrian and Arab auxiliaries reportedly disemboweled refugees in search of gold they might have swallowed before fleeing.
The Romans then built a circumvallation wall of stone, reportedly around 5 miles long, completed in just three days, to cut off all remaining supplies and escape routes. Within the city, Simon bar Giora executed elites suspected of favoring surrender, their mutilated bodies thrown over the walls. John of Gischala and his followers plundered the temple itself, melting down sacred vessels and consuming consecrated food. The famine killed many. Josephus recounts that Maria from Perea, after being stripped of everything by rebels, roasted and ate her infant son. When rebels came, drawn by the smell of food, she offered them the remains. They left, according to Josephus, shocked and trembling.
After capturing the Antonia Fortress, the Romans breached the temple's outer court on the 8th of Av. Two days later, on the tenth of Av, a Roman soldier hurled a burning piece of wood into the northern chamber. Josephus states that Titus, awakened from a nap, rushed to the scene and ordered the fire extinguished. Some soldiers did not hear the command; others deliberately ignored it. Some encouraged others to spread the flames.
Josephus's version has divided historians ever since. The fourth-century Christian historian Sulpicius Severus, possibly drawing on Tacitus's account, claims that Titus deliberately ordered the destruction to eradicate the religions of both Jews and Christians. The Babylonian Talmud and Valerius Flaccus also suggest that Titus bore direct responsibility. Lester L. Grabbe calls Josephus's version "unbelievable", arguing that a Roman commander of known harsh discipline would not have tolerated open disobedience in his presence. Martin Goodman considers it plausible, given the difficulty of controlling fire in Jerusalem's dry summer heat. Doron Mendels argues the Romans likely targeted the temple because they viewed it as central to Jewish rebellion. Steve Mason points to a laudatory poem by Valerius Flaccus that celebrates Titus as "begrimed with the dust of Jerusalem, scattering firebrands and causing havoc in every turret", and notes that Rome had previously destroyed temples in Carthage and Corinth without apparent guilt.
As the structure burned, the priests continued their ritual duties until they were killed, many reportedly accepting death willingly. Josephus writes that two priests, Meirus son of Belgas and Joseph son of Daleus, threw themselves into the flames. A later rabbinic work, the Avot de-Rabbi Natan, recounts that the sons of the high priests cast the temple keys toward heaven, declared themselves unworthy custodians, and leaped into the fire. Cassius Dio records that many Jews chose suicide as the temple fell, viewing it as a form of victory to die beside it.
About 6,000 people, including poor women and children, sought refuge in a colonnade in the outer court. The Romans set the structure ablaze and all perished. The soldiers then carried their military standards into the temple court and offered sacrifices before them. They hailed Titus as imperator. The gold looted from the temple was so immense, according to Josephus, that the gold standard in Syria reportedly depreciated by half.
By early September 70 CE, the Upper City had fallen. Titus ordered the city's total destruction. Only the three towers of Herod's citadel, Phasael, Hippicus, and Mariamne, were spared as a monument to its former strength, along with a section of the western wall to protect Legio X Fretensis, stationed there. The rest of Jerusalem was systematically leveled. Josephus writes that the devastation was so thorough that even former residents would not recognize it, and a visitor might not believe it had ever existed.
The archaeological record confirms this account in granular detail. Excavations led by Nahman Avigad in the 1970s-1980s revealed a massive fire that consumed Jerusalem's Upper City, with layers of ash and debris reaching up to two meters deep. Among the finds in one mansion was a piece by the renowned glassmaker Ennion, so severely damaged it could not be recovered under laboratory conditions. Excavations of what became known as the Burnt House uncovered kitchen tools, pottery, a weight inscribed with the name of the priestly Kathros family, a spear, and the skeletal arm of a young woman likely killed during the siege.
Of the survivors, the Roman official Fronto sorted prisoners in the Court of the Women: rebels were executed, the tallest and most handsome were selected for Titus's triumph in Rome, prisoners over 17 were sent in chains to Egypt, many were distributed across the empire to die by the sword or wild animals, and those under 17 were sold into slavery. About 11,000 reportedly died of starvation while in custody. Josephus claims he personally rescued three men being crucified in Teqoa, though only one survived.
John of Gischala was captured emerging from the underground tunnels and sentenced to life imprisonment. Simon bar Giora emerged from hiding at the ruins of the temple dressed in a white tunic and purple mantle, possibly evoking a royal claim. He was captured by Terentius Rufus and sent to Titus in Caesarea. Both were later transported to Rome for the triumph.
About a year after the fall, in summer 71 CE, Titus and Vespasian held their triumph in Rome, the only such triumph in Roman history dedicated to subjugating the population of an existing province. Josephus estimates the crowd at over 300,000 spectators. The procession displayed the menorah, the golden Table of Showbread, Jewish religious texts, and 700 chained Jewish captives paraded, in Josephus's words, "to make a display of their own destruction". Simon bar Giora was scourged and hanged at the Mamertine Prison, in accordance with Roman custom.
Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai, a prominent sage, was smuggled out of Jerusalem during the siege hidden in a coffin. After reportedly prophesying Vespasian's rise to the imperial throne, he secured permission to establish a rabbinic center in Yavneh. From there, he and his disciples began constructing a form of Judaism no longer organized around the temple.
The changes were concrete and deliberate. Ben Zakkai decreed that if Rosh Hashanah fell on a Shabbat, the shofar could be blown in any location with a court, rather than only at the Jerusalem temple. He permitted the lulav to be carried outside Jerusalem during all seven days of Sukkot. He helped formalize the Amidah prayer, recited three times daily, with its timing correlated with temple sacrifices, as a substitute for the sacrificial rites themselves.
A passage in Avot de-Rabbi Natan captures the spirit of this transition. When Ben Zakkai's disciple Joshua ben Hananiah despaired at the loss of the atonement that temple sacrifice had provided, Ben Zakkai reminded him that acts of loving-kindness were equivalent. The Mishnah laments that since the destruction, "there has been no day without its curse." The same text notes that "faithful men came to an end" with the temple.
The Babylonian Talmud (Gittin 55b-57a) attributes the temple's fall to sin'at ḥinam, baseless hatred, exemplified in the famous tale of Kamsa and Bar Kamsa, where a social slight at a banquet triggered a chain of events leading to the entire war. Three wealthy men, Ben Kalba Sabua, Naqdimon ben Gurion, and Ben Sisit Hakkeset, had stored enough provisions to sustain Jerusalem for 21 years. The revolutionaries burned those stores, the Talmud records, making starvation and war the only remaining options.
Rabbi Akiva, visiting the desolate ruins of Jerusalem with colleagues who wept at the sight, laughed instead. He explained that just as the prophecies of destruction had proven true, so too would the promises of restoration. That posture, grieving and yet forward-looking, defined the rabbinic response. It found form in texts ranging from 2 Baruch, an apocryphal work in which Jerusalem is called "my mother", to 4 Ezra, written possibly during the reign of Domitian (81-96 CE), which depicts Ezra questioning why Israel should remain faithful when obedience has brought only suffering, and finds its answer in visions of the end of days when Rome falls through divine judgment executed by the Messiah.
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Common questions
What caused the siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE?
The siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE was the decisive confrontation of the First Jewish Revolt against Rome (66-73 CE). The revolt began after Roman procurator Gessius Florus seized temple funds in 66 CE, sparking a mass uprising. After the Roman governor of Syria was ambushed and defeated at Bethoron, the Roman general Vespasian launched a systematic campaign to suppress the revolt, with his son Titus completing the assault on Jerusalem.
How many Roman soldiers besieged Jerusalem in 70 CE?
Titus commanded a force estimated at a minimum of 48,200 soldiers. This combined force included four legions, V Macedonica, X Fretensis, XV Apollinaris, and XII Fulminata, along with auxiliary forces, Syrian irregulars, cavalry alae, and troops supplied by allied vassal kings. Tacitus records that a strong Arab force also joined the campaign.
Who were the Jewish leaders defending Jerusalem during the siege?
Three rival faction leaders controlled different parts of the city. John of Gischala held the Temple Mount, the Ophel, and the Kidron Valley. Eleazar ben Simon initially controlled the temple's inner court before being absorbed by John's faction early in the siege. Simon bar Giora commanded the largest force and controlled the upper and lower city. The factions fought each other, burning the city's food stores, before partially uniting against the Romans.
Was the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem accidental or deliberate?
The question remains unresolved among historians. Josephus claims that Titus tried to stop the fire after a Roman soldier ignited the temple, but most modern scholars reject this account. The fourth-century historian Sulpicius Severus, possibly drawing on Tacitus, claims Titus ordered the destruction. Historians Doron Mendels and Steve Mason interpret the destruction as intentional and ideologically motivated, with Mason noting that Rome had previously destroyed temples in Carthage and Corinth and that a laudatory poem by Valerius Flaccus celebrates Titus as scattering firebrands through Jerusalem.
What happened to the Jewish prisoners after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE?
The Roman official Fronto sorted survivors in the Court of the Women: rebels and brigands were executed, the tallest and most handsome were chosen for Titus's triumph in Rome, prisoners over 17 were sent in chains to Egypt, many were distributed across the empire for execution by sword or wild animals, and those under 17 were sold into slavery. Josephus reports that 97,000 were enslaved in total and that about 11,000 prisoners died of starvation while in custody. Simon bar Giora was executed at the Mamertine Prison in Rome during the triumph in 71 CE.
What did Rome build to commemorate the conquest of Jerusalem?
Vespasian completed the Temple of Peace in 75 CE, housing the menorah, the Table of Showbread, and other temple objects from Jerusalem. The Colosseum, completed under Titus, was financed according to an inscription from the spoils of the Judaean war. Emperor Domitian commissioned the Arch of Titus, still standing in the Roman Forum, whose interior reliefs depict soldiers parading the seven-branched menorah during the triumphal procession. The menorah depicted on that arch was later chosen as the emblem of Israel. A coinage campaign known as Judaea Capta was also issued over a span of 10-12 years.