Tiberias, To Be Scene of Final Redemption

Nadene Goldfoot                                              

  Kinneret or Kineret is the Hebrew name of the Sea of Galilee, the largest freshwater lake in Israel.  I visited Tiberias sometime between 1981-1985.  We sat outdoors in the open cafe and watched boats in the huge lake with fishermen.  Of course we had a fish dinner.  It was lovely.  

As early as Roman times, this thriving recreation spa, built around 17 natural mineral hot springs more than 600 feet below sea level, welcomed visitors from every part of the ancient world. Built by Herod Antipas (one of Herod the Great's three sons who divided up Palestine after their father's death), the city was named Tiberias in honor of the Roman Emperor Tiberius.     

Tiberias plays an important role in Jewish history. It was part of the land bequeathed to Naphtali (Joshua 19:35). The Sanhedrin (the High Court of Israel during the period of the Second Temple) relocated to Tiberias from Sepphoris (Safed). In the Mishnaic and Talmudic period, Tiberias was an important spiritual center. The Mishna was completed in Tiberias in 200 C.E. under the supervision of Rabbi Yehuda Ha-Nasi ("Judah the Prince"). The Jerusalem Talmud was compiled in 400 C.E.

Tiberias was founded in 18 CE so it was a new city when the Sanhedrin made the decision in 29 CE to convene in Tiberias in our last days or final redemption.  It was King Herod Antipas who founded it and named it in honor of the Roman emperor Tiberius who reigned from 14 to 37 CE.                             

In the year 3789 (29 CE), the moral character of the Jewish people had declined to the point that the great Jewish court, the Sanhedrin, removed themselves from their respectful place on the Temple Mount and went into exile. This automatically downgraded their spiritual and legal status and they were no longer authorized to judge cases involving capital punishment. That had become the duty of the Romans. 

                                             

I don't know about the  moral decline, but the Romans had been occupying Jerusalem and everything was in question.  After the destruction of the Second Temple in 586 BCE and the failure of the Bar Kokhba Revolt (132-135 CE), the Great Sanhedrin moved to Galilee, which became part of the Roman province of Syria Palaestina.                             

   Sanhedrin: Supreme Court and legislators of 71 rabbis, led by the Nasi, usually a descendant of Rabbi Hillel and an Av Bet Din-a Cohen. Despite what people may think, there is no evidence for the existence of it being a political body except during the troubled decades which preceded the destruction of the Temple. The Sanhedrin ended before the end of the 4th century CE, probably due to the declarations of the Roman rulers, outlawing Judaism.  The Romans saw Judaism as a competitor to their new religion, ,switching from polytheism to worship of Jesus.  

The Sanhedrin traveled to ten different places in exile, the last being Tiberias. According to tradition, in the final redemption, the Sanhedrin will first reconvene in Tiberias, and only from there will they will proceed to the Temple. May it be speedily in our days! Little did they know that the Temple and Jerusalem would be destroyed by fire within 41 years.                         

Herod Antipas (20 BCE-39 CE), son of Herod and Malthace of Samaria  

After his father's death, he became a tetrarch of Galilee and Perea.  He married Herodias, wife of his brother, Herod. This was an offense against the Mosaic Law as Antipas had John put to death.  This marriage led to a disastrous war in 35-36 against Aretas IV, king of the Nabateans, who was the father of Antipas's 1st wife now divorced by him.  During emperor Caligula's reign, Antipas was accused of plotting against Rome and was exiled to Gaul, where he died. Gaul was today's  France, Luxembourg, Belgium, most of Switzerland, and parts of Northern Italy, the Netherlands, and Germany, particularly the west bank of the Rhine.  That's a big swatch of land!  

The emperor, Tiberias, expelled the Jews from Rome in the year 19 on account of a fraud perpetrated on a Roman matron sympathetic to Judaism.  4,000 young Jews were sent to Sardinia to fight the brigands. Palestine was harshly administered under his rule.  It was during his rule that the crucifixion of Jesus occurred.  So Herod honored him with a city.  Oy vey!                                  

Tiberias, the city, soon became the principal Jewish city on the lake.  Its inhabitants took part in the war with Rome but without enthusiasm, surrendering to Vespasian, a Roman emperor from 69 to 79 at the 1st opportunity.  Vespasian was sent by Nero in 67 to subdue the Judean rebellion and by 68 he had conquered Galilee, Transjordan, and the Judean coast before suspending operations on receiving the news of Nero's death.  In 69 he became emperor, and the campaign was concluded by his son, Titus.

Vespasian patronized Josephus, the Jewish general who was captured and given a chance to live if he wrote the history of that period which he did, being a main reference for the destruction of Jerusalem and the burning of the Temple in 70.  The Talmud speaks of Vespasian's favorable treatment of Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai.  

The seat of the patriarchate was transferred to Tiberias in the 3rd century, and the town was a center of Talmudic scholarship and also was the capital of Jewish Palestine until the transfer of the academy to Jerusalem in the 7th century.  It was then known as Maaziah and was a main center of the activity of the Masoretes, those who preserved the body of traditions regarding the correct spelling, writing and reading of the Hebrew Bible..                  

  Israel Facthe Sea f Gali shaped like a harp, kinnor in Hebrew, but this is not where the name of the lake comes frm.           Israel Fache Sea of Galilee is apeke a harp, kinnor in Hebrew, but this is not where the name of the lake comes from.

The Sea of Galilee is shaped like a harp, kinnor in Hebrew, but this is not where the name of the lake comes from.  Israelis call the Sea by the biblical name Kinneret.  This was the name of a city on the northwestern edge of the lake during the Canaanite and Israelite periods. The reference to the Sea of Tiberias is attributable to the newer riparian city.

In 1099, Tiberias was taken by the Crusaders and after the 13th century, remained a fishing village until it was rebuilt in the 18th century by the emir Dahir el-Omar. North of the Roman site, a previous attempt by Joseph Nasi to re-establish it as a Jewish center had failed.  

After his death in 1204, the great Jewish sage Maimonides was buried in Tiberias. His tomb is on Ben Zakkai Street, a short distance from the town center. The street's namesake, Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, is also believed to be buried nearby. Yet another shrine is the Tomb of Rabbi Akiva.                                           

         Shopping area in Tiberias

A Samaritan center existed in Tiberias in the middle of the 4th century. The Crusaders later captured the city and made it the capital of the Galilee, but Saladin retook the city for the Muslim Empire in 1187. The city suffered a decline until it was revived by the Ottoman Turks. After the city was built up over a period of about a century, it was devastated by an earthquake in 1837.

As a result of the big earthquake of 1837, part of the population of Safed moved to Tiberias, as it lay down the mountain below Safed,  which thereafter had a Jewish majority.  The development of Jewish colonies around the Sea of Galilee and of the hot springs south of the city has enhanced its importance. The early Zionist pioneers established some of Israel's first kibbutzim at the turn of the century in this area. After the establishment of the state, newcomers flocked to the city and the population quadrupled. Today, it is home to about 30,000 people. The population in 1990 was 31,200.  I visited a Safed home that had been dug out of the earthquake and bought by an American couple who were able to bring it to the 21st century.  It was beautiful and a rarity, for the common accommodations were apartments.  To live in a house was rare.                                        

The Talmud tells us that Tiberias, or Tiveryah (טבריה) in Hebrew, is related to the Hebrew word for navel, tabur (טבור), and is so named for its location in the center of the Land of Israel. Others cite a tradition that the name “Tiveryah" stands for the words tovah re'iyatah (טובה ראייתה), “her sight is goodly,” and is so named due to both its physical beauty—its beautiful gardens and orchards, and its location at the banks of the Kinneret—and its spiritual beauty, as it was a major center of Torah learning.

Tiberias is a city that is 2,003 years old, and very much a Jewish city now after being a Muslim center.  

Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/3656661/jewish/Four-Holy-Cities-of-Israel-What-and-Why.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanhedrin

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/tiberias

Philo's Hellenization After Attempts To Halt Syrian Greeks'

 Nadene Goldfoot                     

       Imaginative illustration of Philo made in 1584 by the French portrait artist André Thevet

Philo, (20 BCE- after 40 CE) a Jew from Alexandria, Egypt,  is a good example of a Hellenized Jew.  He made a visit to Judah (not to become Palestine until 135 CE).  He had participated in the deputation of Alexandrian Jews to Emperor Caligula of maniacal reputation  during the anti-Jewish outbreaks in 40. 

Caligula  31 August 12 AD – 24 January 41 AD), formally known as Gaius (Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus), was the third Roman emperor, ruling from 37 to 41.  The Jewish community in Alexandria, which fell under Caligula’s rule, had sent an envoy to the Roman palace to discuss their issues with the emperor. Recorded by Philo, the conversation shows Caligula a bit miffed that the Jews wouldn’t worship him as a god: “You are haters of god,” Caligula tells the Jewish envoy, “as you do not think that I am a god, I who am already acknowledged to be a god by every other nation.” He then asks why the Jews don’t eat pork, to which their envoy replied, For the same reason “some people don’t eat lamb.” To which Caligula ripostes, “They’re quite right, it’s not very nice.”

But rather than murder the Jews—that would fall to Caligula’s successors, thirty years later, who ultimately massacred hundreds of Jews as they destroyed the Second Temple, in 70 A.D.—he adopted a tone of resigned pity. “These men,” Caligula said of the Jews, as their envoy left, they “do not appear to me to be wicked so much as unfortunate and foolish in not believing that I have been endowed with the nature of god.” Better he mete out only pity on the Jews, and not deadly wrath.

                                            
Philo's family was one of the wealthiest in Egypt.  He received a Hellenistic education and his writings evidencing his familiarity with Greek literature, philosophy, etc., even his name shows his family's involvement.  His command of Greek stems from his acquaintance with the philosophers, especially PLATO. 

 

His Jewish education was slight:  It is doubtful if he knew Hebrew, and his knowledge of the Bible appears to be derived from the Septuagint and from Hellenistic commentaries current among Alexandrian Jewry.  These commentaries were allegorical and Philo adopted this approach in his own writings.  His literary output was considerable, including metaphysics, ethics, and Bible commentary.  He also wrote an historical work, parts of which survive in his account of the persecution by and retribution of Flaccus, governor of Egypt, during the anti-Jewish disturbances, and in a vivid description of the deputation to Caligula.  

Hellenizing Israel:  Hellenistic Judaism was a form of Judaism in classical antiquity that combined Jewish religious tradition with elements of Greek culture.  The main centers of Hellenistic Judaism were Alexandria in Egypt and Antioch in Syria (now in southern Turkey), the two main Greek urban settlements of the Middle East and North Africa region, both founded at the end of the fourth century BCE in the wake of the conquests of Alexander the Great. Hellenistic Judaism also existed in Jerusalem during the Second Temple Period when it was destroyed in 70 CE where there was conflict between Hellenizers and traditionalists.                         

                                                  

Upon the death of King Alexander the Great of Macedonia of Greek antiquity, said to be very handsome, in 323 BCE his huge empire, spanning from Greece to Pakistan, was divided among his generals. The three most powerful factions which emerged from the ensuing wars were the Seleucids, the Ptolemies and the Antigonids. From the years 274 – 168 BCE the Ptolemies and the Seleucids waged a dynastic war for the control of Syria which became Coele-Syria later as a Roman province."Syria" historically referred to a wider region, broadly synonymous with the Levant.  The modern state encompasses the sites of several ancient kingdoms and empires, including the Eblan civilization of the 3rd millennium BCE. Aleppo and the capital city Damascus are among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. 

It happened in ancient days when Syria was not Muslim.   From Palestine to Persia one may trace the rise of Wisdom literature (the teachings of a sage concerning the hidden purposes of the deity) and apocalyptic traditions (referring to a belief in the dramatic intervention of a god in human and natural events) that represent these central concerns—i.e., national destiny, the importance of traditional lore, the saving power of kingship, and the revival of mythic images. Each of these native traditions likewise underwent hellenization (modifications based on Greek cultural ideas), but in a manner frequently different from their diasporic counterparts. The Greeks brought their polytheistic religion with them.

The major literary product of the contact of Second Temple Judaism and Hellenistic culture is the Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible from Biblical Hebrew and Biblical Aramaic to Koine Greek, specifically, Jewish Koine Greek. Mentionable are also the philosophic and ethical treatises of Philo, a Jew, and the historiographical works of the other Hellenistic Jewish authors.

                                              

In 223 BCE, an 18 year old  Antiochus III, a Greek King from the House of Seleucus who ruled Syria in the Hellenistic Period, ascended to the Seleucid throne after his brother Seleucus III, was murdered by his soldiers in Upper Asia (modern day central-western Turkey). Despite his youth, Antiochus soon proved he was both eager and shrewd as a ruler. Yet at times, he misplaced his trust in certain people: no more so than with a man called Molon.                       

Molon  Ancient Greek:  died 220 BC) was a general and satrap of the Seleucid king Antiochus the Great (223–187 BC). He held the satrapy of Media at the accession of that monarch (223 BC); in addition to which, Antiochus conferred upon him and his brother Alexander the government of all the upper provinces of his empire. But their hatred of Hermeias, the chief minister of Antiochus, soon led them both to revolt in 222 BCE. The two generals at first sent against them by the king were unable to oppose their progress, and Molon found himself at the head of a large army, and master of the whole country to the east of the Tigris. Molon committed suicide  on the battlefield avoid capture. His body was impaled on the slope of the Zagros Mountains at the urging of Hermeias.

                                How did Syria turn into a Greek country?  

Antiochus  reigned from(223-187 BCE and conquered Judah in about 200 BCE, but granted privileges to the Temple.  He settled 2,000  Babylonian Jewish families to the cities of Phrygia and Lydia from Babylon, entrusting them with an important role in securing those  regions of his empire.                 

The Dying Galatian was a famous statue commissioned some time between 230–220 BCE by King Attalos I of Pergamon to honor his victory over the Celtic Galatians in Anatolia.  a Celtic people dwelling in Galatia, a region of central Anatolia surrounding present-day Ankara, during the Hellenistic period. They spoke the Galatian language, which was closely related to Gaulish, a contemporary Celtic language spoken in Gaul.

                                                   

 

Panoramic view of Istanbul from the confluence of the Bosphorus and the Sea of Marmara. Several landmarks—including Sultan Ahmed Mosque, the Hagia Sophia, Topkapı Palace, and Dolmabahçe Palace—can be seen along their shores.

Phrygia, ancient district in west-central Anatolia, named after a people whom the Greeks called Phryges and who dominated Asia Minor between the Hittite collapse (12th century BCE) and the Lydian ascendancy (7th century BCE). In classical antiquity, Phrygia was a kingdom in the west central part of Anatolia, in what is now Asian Turkey, centred on the Sangarios River. After its conquest, it became a region of the great empires of the time.  Anatolia, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey.                   

 Among the various Phrygian religious practices, the cult of the Great Mother (Cybele) predominated and was passed on to the Greeks.  The religion of Phrygia, like the culture in general of the region, was a mix of Greek, Anatolian, and Near Eastern elements. In Rome, Cybele became known as Magna Mater ("Great Mother"). KYBELE (Cybele) was the great Phrygian mother of the gods, and goddess of motherhood, fertility and the mountain wilds. Her orgiastic cult dominated the central and north-western regions of Anatolia and was introduced to Greece via the island of Samothrake and the Boiotian town of Thebes.

                                              

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greeks_in_Syria

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philo

https://jewishweek.timesofisrael.com/caligula-and-the-jews/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coele_Syria_(Roman_province)

https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/explore-the-bible/15-things-about-syria-s-people-and-history-as-found-in-the-bible.html

The First Jewish Revolt, Our History in Judah and Israel Documented and Verified by the Romans

Nadene Goldfoot                                             

Rome's Arch of Titus

The famous Arch of Titus in Rome depicts Roman legionaries carrying the 

Temple of Jerusalem's treasuries, including the Menorah, during Titus' triumphal procession in Rome. The Arch also shows us that some Legionaires rode in chariots pulled 

by horses.  

 With the fall of Jerusalem, some insurrection still continued in isolated locations in Judea, lasting as long as to the year, 73.

The Jews had been almost starved to death while the soldiers were well fed. 

 How the Jews could have marched constantly at such a pace surely would have 

killed many along the way.  

Jerusalem fell to the Romans in July 70. 

 The Second Temple (the renovated Herod's Temple), one of the last fortified bastions of the rebellion, was destroyed on Tisha B'Av (29 or 30 July 70).

No one knows what happened to the items taken.  According to the first-century Jewish historian Josephus, the menorah was placed in Vespasian’s newly built Temple of Peace, not far from the Arch. It seems to have resided there at least until the third century, if not until the Ostrogoth Sack of Rome in the fifth. "It’s possible that the Vandals melted down the menorah after they sacked the city in 455 C.E."

                                                   

The Jews are marched to Rome carrying the artifacts from the Temple

that were priceless, and ancient, going back to the days of Moses.  The above map shows it would be 2,243 miles away.  Though as the crow flies the distance is 2,302.731 miles, by land transport would be 4,010.099 miles.  This road journey by car will take 2 Days, 7 Hours, 41 Minutes.  With my driving, it would take a week.  By foot?  These Romans and Jews could have walked 96 miles in 24 hours.  The Roman legion would have walked about 20 miles per day, dressed in armor.  The Jewish slaves had to do the carrying.  It should have taken them about 200 days to arrive in Rome.  If they started out in September 70, they would have arrived in about 7 months or by April 71, walking 20 miles per day.  

A standard post-Marian Roman legion contained 4,800 regular soldiers, divided into 10 cohorts of 480 soldiers. Each cohort was divided into 8 centuries of 80 soldiers which was further divided into 10 tents of 8 soldiers each. Additionally, the army would have auxiliary troops, scouts, generals bodyguards, a huge baggage train, etc....How many did it take to march the Judeans to Rome? During the first three centuries of the empire the Roman army contained between 25 and 34 legions. 

A Jewish community has existed in Rome as one of the oldest in the world and certainly the oldest in Europe.  The first reliable record of Jews there dates back to 139 BCE. The denomination 139 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.  
Year 139 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar

• The Lusitanian War ended when the rebellion collapsed after the assassination of Viriathus by a Roman agent.
• The Achaean League was reestablished.
•                                                  
  
• At the time, the pharaoh was Ptolemy VIII Physcon of Egypt. 
• The first Jews likely arrived as messengers sent by Judah Maccabee in the second century B.C.E.  He was the son of Mattathias, military leader (Aluf)  of the revolt against Syria in 168 BCE. 

This civilization of multiple gods had come to occupy Jerusalem and try to force their religion upon the Jews.  The had intermittent wars, written about by Josephus, a captured Judean ALUF (General) who wound up writing for the invaders.  The aftermath of their fighting led to taking Jewish slaves to Rome which later reinforced the growing Jewish community.

If one searches in the Roman catacombs, history of the Jews is found. 
                                                                              

Royalty through his mother : to King David
The Priesthood through his father: to Aaron, brother of Moses

Josephus Flavius was his given Roman name.  His Hebrew name was Yoseph ben Mattityahu ha-Cohen and he was born about 38 CE and died 100 CE.  He was from a priestly family and had a fair general education.  He was a politician, soldier and historian.  In the year of 64 he went to Rome on a semi-public mission.  He called himself Flavius Josephus and claimed that he was from the royal family through his mother.  This was because the family was derived through the children of Asmoneus who had both the office of the high priesthood and the dignity of a king for a long time together.  

His grandfather's father was Simon Psellus.  He lived at the same time with that son of Simon the high priest, who first of all the high priests were named Hyrcanus.  This Simon Psellus had 9 sons, one of whom was Matthias Ephlias. "Simon Psellus  (Greek: Σίμων ὁ Ψελλός, his epithet Ψελλός was his nickname meaning in Greek: the stutter, flourished 2nd century BC) was an ethnic Jew living in Jerusalem.

Simon's ancestors were contemporary to the rule of the Ptolemaic dynasty and Seleucid dynasty over Judea. He was a wealthy man who served as a priest in the Temple in Jerusalem. Simon belonged to the priestly order of the Jehoiarib, the first of the twenty-four orders of Priests in the Temple in Jerusalem. Simon lived when the Hasmonean rulers Simon Thassi (reigned 142–135 BC) and his son John Hyrcanus I (reigned 134–104 BC) ruled over Judea.

Simon had nine children; among them was his son Matthias Ephlias. Through his son, Simon was an ancestor of the Roman Jewish Historian of the 1st century, Flavius Josephus. Josephus in his writings calls Simon the Patriarch of his family.

He married the daughter of Jonathan the high priest of which Jonathan was the 1st of the sons of Asmoneus , who was high priest and was the brother of Simon the high priest as well.  This Matthias had a son called Matthias Curtus and that in the 1st year of the government of Hyrcanus, his son's name was Joseph who was born in the 9th year of the reign of Alexandra.  His son Matthias was born in the 10th year of the reign of Archelaus and Flavius Josephus was born to Matthias in the 1st year of the reign of:
                                                                              

Thought of himself as a G0d

Caligula was Roman emperor from AD 37 to AD 41. The son of the popular Roman general Germanicus and Augustus' granddaughter Agrippina the Elder, Caligula was born into the first ruling family of the Roman Empire, conventionally known as the Julio-Claudian dynasty. He is known to us for his  " cruelty, sadism, extravagance, and sexual perversion, presenting him as an insane tyrant. While the reliability of these sources is questionable, it is known that during his brief reign, Caligula worked to increase the unconstrained personal power of the emperor."

Caius Caesar 37-41.  Caius or Gaius Julius Caesar(known to us as Caligula)  gave Agrippa I(10 BCE -44CE) , grandson of Herod, the tetrachy of NE Judah and the title of king.  He insisted on being worshipped as a god which caused a problem among the Jews.  Do you think? 
                                                                             

HASMONEAN DYNASTY

High Priests-descended from tribe of Levi's Aaron, brother of Moses
As they might have looked in Solomon's Temple-961-920 BCE

Josephus said he had 3 sons;  Hyreanus, the eldest, born in the 4th year of the reign of Vespasian.  Justus was born in the 7th year and Agrippa was born in the 9th.  With this he said he had written down his genealogy of his family as he had found it described in the public records, and continued to tell more about his father.

Matthias was eminent because of his nobility, but had a higher commendation because of his righteousness, and had a great reputation in Jerusalem, the greatest city they had.  He was brought up with his brother by both his father and mother.  He made great grades in the improvements of his learning and appeared to have a great memory and understanding.  When he was a child at 14, he was commended by all for the love he had to learn. "The high priests and principal men of the city came frequently to me in order to know my opinion about the accurate understanding of points of the law."
                                                                       

Josephus, a portrait bust done in Rome
in Danish museum today. 

When he was about 16, he held a mock trial of the Pharisees and then the Sadducees and also the Essenes so that he could choose the best of the 3.  To do this he contented himself with hard fare and underwent great difficulties.  When he was informed that one, Banus, lived in the desert and use no other clothing than what grew upon trees and had no other food than what grew of its own accord and bathed himself in cold water frequently, both night and day in order to preserve his chastity, Josephus imitated him in these very things and continued living with him for 3 years.

When Josephus had accomplished what he had set out to do, he returned back to the city now at 19 and began to conduct himself according to the rules of the sect of the Pharisees, which is kin to the sect of the Stoics, as the Greeks called them.
                                                                         

Roman Centurion in command of 80 men
It was men like this who had occupied Jerusalem before burning it down. 

The Jews of  Judea had revolted against the occupation of the Roman soldiers and they regained their independence temporarily in 66.  Josephus was sent to to Galilee as a representative of the Revolutionary Government where he assumed the supreme military command.  He quarreled violently with the patriotic extremists who accused him of temporizing tendencies.

The Romans attacked Galilee in 67. Josephus directed the resistance and was besieged in Jotapata.  On the capture of the city, Josephus went over to the Roman side, probably instead of being killed.  From then on he called himself Flavius, the family name of Vespasian.

It took more than one legion of 4,800 men  to take over Jerusalem and then destroy it.  "As the legions charged in, neither persuasion nor threat could check their impetuosity: passion alone was in command. Crowded together around the entrances many were trampled by their friends, many fell among the still hot and smoking ruins of the colonnades and died as miserably as the defeated. As they neared the Sanctuary they pretended not even to hear Caesar's commands and urged the men in front to throw in more firebrands. The partisans were no longer in a position to help; everywhere was slaughter and flight. Most of the victims were peaceful citizens, weak and unarmed, butchered wherever they were caught. Round the Altar the heaps of corpses grew higher and higher, while down the Sanctuary steps poured a river of blood and the bodies of those killed at the top slithered to the bottom."

The Roman legions quickly crushed the remaining Jewish resistance. Some of the remaining Jews escaped through hidden underground tunnels and sewers, while others made a final stand in the Upper City. This defense halted the Roman advance as they had to construct siege towers to assail the remaining Jews.  Herod's Palace fell on 7 September, and the city was completely under Roman control by 8 September 70.  The Romans continued to pursue those who had fled the city."


                                                                     

Perhaps the Romans used ships from Jerusalem to Rome.  In the Jewish revolt, from 66 to 70, the Romans were forced to fight Jewish ships, operating from a harbour in the area of modern Tel Aviv, on Israel's Mediterranean coast. In the meantime several flotilla engagements on the Sea of Galilee took place. Though it would be more logical by distance, the Romans were a land people.  They didn't fare that well on the water.  

The Romans took Jerusalem in 70.    Josephus  went with Vespasian and Titus during the siege of Jerusalem and tried to persuade the Jews to abandon their resistance.  They wouldn't and the Romans crushed their revolt.  Josephus was given a reward of confiscated estates in Judea, but decided to live in Rome.

In his writings, he tries to present himself as a patriotic leader and his devotion to the Roman cause.  These are the only records we have.  He wrote about The Jewish War toward the end of Emperor Vespasian's reign(69-79), and also wrote in Aramaic one called The Antiquities of the Jews, giving the history of the Jews from the beginning to the outbreak of the War with Rome.  This was written in 93.  He wrote his own autobiography, defending himself against the allegations of a rival historian, Justus of Tiberias in that he had been responsible for the Jewish War in his part of the events from 66 to 70 as this differs in  many respects from that of the 1ate named work, Against Apion which defends the Jewish people against the accusations of the Alexandrian sophist, Apion.

"Flavius Josephus fully defected to the Roman side and was granted Roman citizenship. He became an advisor and friend of Vespasian's son Titus, serving as his translator when Titus led the Siege of Jerusalem. Since the siege proved ineffective at stopping the Jewish revolt, the city's destruction and the looting and destruction of Herod's Temple (Second Temple) soon followed."

"Despite possible efforts of then-general, later-emperor, Titus, to spare the Temple itself, his troops set fire to the most holy site in Judaism and it was utterly destroyed."

"After Jewish allies killed a number of Roman soldiers, Titus sent Josephus, the Jewish historian, to negotiate with the defenders; this ended with Jews wounding the negotiator with an arrow, and another sally was launched shortly after. Titus was almost captured during this sudden attack, but escaped."

I doubt if this was true.  The destruction was after starving the city into submission, and it was horrible as written by Josephus himself.  People would not have had the energy to continue any revolt.  To think that Josephus was said to have had some responsibility in this destruction should have driven him to madness.  To be the son of royalty and of priests, and to see the destruction of the 2nd Temple and know all about the history of his people is just too much for anyone to bear.  How could he have remained so cold-hearted?  
                                                       

                                                   

"The siege ended on 30 August 70 CE with the burning and destruction of its Second Temple, and the Romans entered and sacked the Lower City. The destruction of both the first and second temples is still mourned annually as the Jewish fast Tisha B'Av. The Arch of Titus, celebrating the Roman sack of Jerusalem and the Temple, still stands in Rome. The conquest of the city was complete on 8 September 70 CE."

"Josephus claims that 1.1 million (1,000,100)  people were killed during the siege, of which a majority were Jewish. Josephus attributes this to the celebration of Passover (in April)  which he uses as rationale for the vast number of people present among the death toll.  Armed rebels, as well as the frail citizens, were put to death. All of Jerusalem's remaining citizens became Roman prisoners. After the Romans killed the armed and elder people, 97,000 were still enslaved, including Simon bar Giora and John of Giscala. Simon bar Giora was executed, and John of Giscala was sentenced to life imprisonment. Of the 97,000, thousands were forced to become gladiators and eventually expired in the arena. Many others were forced to assist in the building of the Forum of Peace and the Colosseum. Those under 17 years of age were sold into servitude.  Josephus' death toll assumptions are rejected as impossible by modern scholarship, since around the time about a million people lived in Palestine, about half of them were Jews, and sizable Jewish populations remained in the area after the war was over, even in the hard-hit region of Judea.

Titus and his soldiers celebrated victory upon their return to Rome by parading the Menorah and Table of the Bread of God's Presence through the streets. Up until this parading, these items had only ever been seen by the high priest of the Temple. This event was memorialized in the Arch of Titus."

"Arch of Titus: c. 82 CE, Roman Emperor Domitian constructed the Arch of Titus on Via Sacra, Rome, to commemorate the capture and siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE, which effectively ended the Great Jewish Revolt, although the Romans did not achieve complete victory until the fall of Masada in 73 CE."

"Judaea Capta coinage: Judaea Capta coins were a series of commemorative coins originally issued by the Roman Emperor Vespasian to celebrate the capture of Judaea and the destruction of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem by his son Titus in 70 CE during the First Jewish Revolt."

Josephus's book of the Wars of the Jews is 605 pages.  At the end he states he tried to write truthfully.  Indeed, he gave a lot of information that otherwise would have been lost.  

****Resource: https://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2016/07/horrors-of-2nd-temple-and-jerusalem.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_navy
 The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
JOSEPHUS,  from Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, Michigan, translated by William Whiston, AM.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Jerusalem_(70_CE)
https://www.quora.com/How-far-could-a-Roman-soldier-march-while-wearing-armor
https://www.thedailybeast.com/what-happened-to-the-jerusalem-temples-menorah
http://www.primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/romans/soldiers.html#intro
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_navy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Jerusalem_(70_CE)#Commemoration
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Psellus
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2015/08/jezebel-and-fatal-royal-houses-of.html
https://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2016/02/roman-destruction-of-2nd-temple-and.html