Battle of Beth Horon

The Battle of Beth Horon was a battle fought in 66 AD between Roman and Jewish rebel forces in the First Jewish-Roman War.

Background

Roman influence in Judea first began around 63 B.C., when the Roman general Pompey arrived in the Middle East as part of the Roman campaign against Mithridates, the king of Pontus. Judea was then ruled by a series of client kings and rulers, friendly to and supported by Rome. King Herod was named by Rome as the King of the Jews in 37 BC, after the Parthian backed leader Antigonus II Mattathias was ousted. In 66 AD, King Agrippa II was the official ruler of Judea, with Rome's blessing.

Rebellion

In 66 AD long-standing Greek and Jewish religious tensions took a downward spiral after Jewish worshippers witnessed Greek civilians sacrificing birds in front of a local synagogue in Caesarea^[1] and complained to the authorities. The Roman garrison did not intervene, leading to the triggering of popular protests against Roman taxation. The protests were ignored by the governor until public attacks in Jerusalem on Roman citizens and others accused of having Roman sympathies, led the army garrison to intervene. The soldiers were attacked as they moved through the city by an increasing proportion of the Jewish residents; many troops were killed and the rest evacuated Jerusalem^[2]. As news of this action spread, many other towns and Jews joined the rebellion. Fearing the worst, the pro-Roman king Agrippa II and his sister Berenice fled Jerusalem to the Galilee.

The battle

Cestius Gallus, the legate of Syria, marched on Jerusalem with legion XII Fulminata and auxiliary troops^[3] in the hope of restoring order. Such had been the standard Roman reaction to uprisings at the time. All available troops were mustered, formed into a column and sent to confront its perceived centre. Ideally, such a show of force would have allowed the Romans to regain the initiative and prevent the rebellion from developing and growing stronger^[4]. Gallus conquered Bezetha, in the Jezreel Valley, then seat of the Great Sanhedrin (Jewish supreme religious court), but was unable to take The Temple Mount; he now decided to withdraw and wait for reinforcement.

Withdrawing towards the coast, the Romans were closely pursued by rebel scouts. As they neared the pass of Beth Horon, they were ambushed and came under attack from massed missile fire. They were then suddenly rushed by a large force of infantry. The Romans could not get into formation within the narrow confines of the pass and lost cohesion under the fierce assault. The equivalent of an entire legion was destroyed. Gallus succeeded in escaping with a fraction of his troops to Antioch by sacrificing the greater part of his army and a large amount of war material.

It was the worst defeat suffered by regular Roman troops against a rebelling province in history, encouraging many more volunteers and towns to throw their lot in with the rebels. A full-scale war was now inevitable.

Aftermath

Soon after his return Gallus died (before the spring of 67), and was succeeded in the governorship by Licinius Mucianus. The shock of the defeat convinced the Romans of the need to fully commit to crushing the rebellion regardless of the effort it would require.^[5] Emperor Nero and the senate then appointed General Vespasian, the future Emperor, to go to Judea and crush the rebellion.

References

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (April 2009)

• Davis, Paul K. (2001). 100 Decisive Battles. Oxford University Press. ISBN 1576070751.