Zealot - The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth

escaped.
    Felix’s bumbling reaction to these events ultimately led to his sacking and replacement
     with another man, Porcius Festus. ButFestus proved no better in dealing with the restive Jewish population, either in the
     countryside, where the number of prophets and messiahs gathering followers and preaching
     liberation from Rome was growing out of control, or in Jerusalem, where the Sicarii,
     buoyed by their success in killing the high priest Jonathan, were now murdering and
     pillaging at will. So overwhelmed was Festus by the stress of the position that he
     died soon after taking the office. He was followed by Lucceius Albinus, a notorious
     degenerate, swindler, and incompetent who spent his two years in Jerusalem enriching
     himself by plundering the wealth of the populace. After Albinus came Gessius Florus,
     whose brief, turbulent tenure was remembered because first, it made the years under
     Albinus seem positively peaceful in comparison, and second, he would be the last Roman
     governor Jerusalem would know.
    It was now 64 C.E . In two years’ time the anger, resentment, and messianic zeal that had been steadily
     building throughout the land would erupt into a full-scale revolt against Rome. Cumanus,
     Felix, Festus, Albinus, Florus—each of these governors contributed through his malfeasance
     to the Jewish uprising. Rome itself was to blame for its mismanagement and severe
     overtaxation of the beleaguered population. Certainly the Jewish aristocracy, with
     their incessant conflicts and their sycophantic efforts to gain power and influence
     by bribing Roman officials, shared responsibility for the deteriorating social order.
     And no doubt the Temple leadership played a role in fostering the widespread sense
     of injustice and crushing poverty that had left so many Jews with no choice but to
     turn to violence. Add to all this the seizure of private lands, the high levels of
     unemployment, the displacement and forced urbanization of the peasantry, and the drought
     and famine that devastated the Judean and Galilean countryside, and it was only a
     matter of time before the fires of rebellion would engulf the whole of Palestine.
     It seemed that the entire Jewish nation was ready to erupt into open revolt at the
     slightest provocation—which Florus was foolish enough to provide.
    In May of 66 C.E. , Florus suddenly announced that the Jews owed Rome a hundred thousand dinarii in
     unpaid taxes. Trailed by an army of bodyguards, the Roman governor marched into the
     Temple and broke into the treasury, plundering the money that the Jews had offered
     as a sacrifice to God. Riots ensued, to which Florus responded by sending a thousand
     Roman soldiers into the upper city to murder at will. The soldiers killed women and
     children. They broke into homes and slaughtered people in their beds. The city was
     thrown into chaos. War was on the horizon.
    To calm the situation, the Romans sent the Jews one of their own: Agrippa II, whose
     father, Agrippa I, was a beloved Jewish leader who had managed to maintain a close
     bond with Rome. Although the son did not share his late father’s popularity, he was
     the best hope the Romans had for defusing the tension in Jerusalem.
    The young Agrippa rushed to the holy city in a last-ditch effort to stave off war.
     Standing on the roof of the royal palace with his sister Bernice at his side, he pleaded
     with the Jews to face the reality of the situation. “Will you defy the whole Roman
     Empire?” he asked. “What is the army, where is the weapon on which you rely? Where
     is your fleet to sweep the Roman seas? Where is your treasury to meet the cost of
     your campaigns? Do you really suppose that you are going to war with Egyptians or
     Arabs? Will you shut your eyes to the might of the Roman Empire? Will you not measure
     your own weakness? Are you wealthier than the Gauls, stronger than the Germans, more
     intelligent than the Greeks, more numerous than all the peoples of the world? What
     is it which inspires you with confidence to defy the Romans?”
    Of course, the revolutionaries had an answer to Agrippa’s question. It was zeal that
     inspired them. The same zeal that had led the Maccabees to throw off Seleucid control
     two centuries before—the zeal that had helped the Israelites conquer the Promised
     Land in the first place—would now help this ragtag band of Jewish revolutionaries
     to throw off the shackles of Roman occupation.
    Derided