The Defeat of Cestius Gallus, A.D.66
S. G. F. Brandon describes how the Roman legate faced the problems of a Jewish Revolt.
In the summer of A.D.66 the priests of the great Temple of Yahweh at Jerusalem suddenly refused to offer the daily sacrifice for the wellbeing of the Emperor and people of Rome. These sacrifices had become the accepted token of Israel’s loyalty to Rome; for the Jews were excused, because of their religious principles, from sacrificing to the deities of the Roman state. Refusal to offer their form of ‘loyal’ sacrifice was, therefore, tantamount to an act of rebellion on the part of the Jews.
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