The Jewish historian, Yosef bin Mattiyahu, better known to history as Flavius Josephus (c. 37-95 AD), in his “Antiquities of the Jews”, quoted at length by the Church historian Eusebius of Caesaria ( c.265-369) in his “Historica Ecclesiastica” recounts, in considerable detail, the Roman assault on Jerusalem in AD 70. His account includes a strange incident of cannibalism during the siege of Jerusalem by Roman troops.
Josephus’ account is of great value to historians, as he was an eyewitness. Josephus had fallen into the hands of the Romans in the defense of Galilee (he had been a soldier and fought against the Romans in Galilee, a few years before the siege of Jerusalem began). The Romans took him to witness the siege.
The Roman campaign in Palestine had begun with an uprising of Jewish militants in the countryside in AD 66. C. Roman troops under Vespasian had been engaged in a campaign against militants in the countryside for some years before the siege of Jerusalem began. at Qumran it was evicted in 68 AD. C. The war soon converged on Jerusalem in the Passover season of 70 AD. C. When Roman troops, now under the command of Vespasian’s son Titus, sealed off Jerusalem, millions upon thousands of Jews from the surrounding country sought refuge in Jerusalem. within its walls.
Josephus estimated that the number of Jews in Jerusalem in the Passover season of 70 AD. C. had increased above 3 million. As the siege progressed, the famine began. Armed bandits soon got into the habit of going from house to house in search of food, breaking down doors and confiscating food or anything of value to them. As food shortages intensified, conditions worsened and order broke down completely in the besieged city, as roving hordes of militants went totally berserk looting, killing and looting homes and confiscating every shop they could find without worrying. for how their victims would survive.
According to Josephus, the rabid-dog behavior of the armed bandits caused great distress to the common people who began to starve in large numbers in their homes and on the streets. In the midst of this hell was a certain woman Mary, daughter of Eleazar of Bathezor, from a distinguished and wealthy family. She had fled with other refugees from her home country to Jerusalem in the spring of AD 70 before the advance of Roman troops. Everyone knew that she was rich, so she became the favorite victim of looters and criminals who soon stripped her of everything she had in her possession. In the process, she vehemently resisted, often trying to hide the purchases from her, because she had money to buy food. But the looters kept an eye on her and ransacked her house thoroughly as soon as they thought she had acquired new stores, leaving her nothing. She soon grew tired of resisting and acquiring food for the benefit of the looters. Secretly, she killed her nursing baby and roasted her meat. The sweet smell of roasting meat attracted her attention and her tormentors pounced on her again demanding that she give up her roast. Maria, at that moment, apparently out of her mind and in great anguish, coldly told them that she had prepared a banquet for them and had reserved the best part for her enjoyment. She led them to where the half-eaten remains of her baby were covered and revealed the horrible sight. Even the men who had been hardened by the horrors of war were shocked and seized with fear at the sight of the half-consumed roasted child of her mother.
“This is my own son,” he told them. “The work is the mind. Eat, because I too have eaten. Do not be more merciful than a woman, nor more compassionate than a mother. But if you are too pious and refuse my sacrifice, let the rest be left to me.” Hearing these words, the men, terribly shocked, silently left the room. No one thought to deprive her of the last store of hers.
Meanwhile, the war intensified and the survivors soon began dumping masses of corpses over the city walls into the valley below. So terrible was the sight of the trenches littered with bloated and festering bodies that even the Roman commander Titus cried out at the sight crying out to God to witness that it was not his doing. Those who tried to escape the besieged city were captured by Roman soldiers, flogged and tortured, and then crucified alive before the city walls. The crucifixion rays emerged one after another in a forest of thousands of crucified bodies. The attacking Roman soldiers encountered a group of some 6,000 women and children who had sought refuge in a part of the outer grounds of the temple. They simply set fire to the cloister and burned all 6,000 souls to death.
Josephus estimated the number of Jews killed at around 1.1 million (“by famine and by the sword”). The survivors over the age of seventeen were sent as prisoners to labor camps in Egypt, and the children (about 90,000) were sold into slavery.