All language subtitles for empires.david.e03-sprinter

In 63 BC

the Roman general Pompeii
led his legions into the land of Judea.

For 100 years,
Judea had been an independent nation

and many Jews believed that as
the Chosen People of the one true God,

they would remain free forever.

But it soon became clear

that the world's greatest empire
could not be resisted.

The triumph of the Romans produced
a crisis of faith among the Jews.

For some, the only explanation was that
the final battle between good and evil,

the End of Days, was at hand.

They would soon see
evidence of their belief,

for the years ahead in Judea

would be one of the most bloody
and chaotic periods in human history.

This is a story of terrorists
and political assassination,

of brutal overlords
who crucified thousands

and of the siege of Jerusalem,

with over 100,000 people
trapped inside.

But it is also the story of how,
amid the chaos,

two new religions
began to flower.

Religions that would change
mankind's ideas

about justice, mercy and God.

(MIDDLE-EASTERN MUSIC)

When Roman troops rushed into Jerusalem,
the capital of Judea,

they were unaware
that they were about to meet

the most extraordinary people
they had ever tried to conquer.

The defenders of the city
retreated not to a fortress,

but to the temple of their unique god
to make their last stand.

According to the historian Josephus,

when the Romans attacked the Temple

their commander Pompeii was amazed
by the behaviour of the Jewish priests.

"Pompeii could not but admire

"that they did not at all
intermit their religious services,

"even when the temple
was being attacked on all sides.

"Nor indeed, even when the temple
was actually being taken

"did they leave off the divine worship
appointed by their law. "

(GONG RINGS)

For the temple priests, performing
the rituals that honoured their god

was more important than life itself.

For centuries

reports that the Jews believed
there was only one god in the universe

had fascinated the other peoples
of the ancient world.

And the Jews' Temple in Jerusalem
was famous far and wide

for the amazing rituals the priests
performed to worship their god.

The Roman general Pompeii
was among those who was intrigued

by the Jews' unusual religion.

(DRUMBEAT)

He was particularly curious

to see what their mysterious god
looked like.

According to Josephus,

as soon as the Roman general
gained control of the city

he went inside the Temple
in search of its most sacred sanctum,

the Holy of Holies, where the god
of the Jews was reputed to live.

"There was nothing
that affected the nation,

"in all the calamities
that they were under,

"as that their holy place,
which had hitherto been seen by none,

"should be laid open to strangers.

"For Pompeii went whither
it was not lawful any to enter

"but the high priest himself. "

Instead of the great statue
of marble or bronze that he expected,

Pompeii saw... nothing.

According to the Jews,
their god was so great

he could not be captured by an idol

or any other man-made image.

He was without form, timeless,

and present everywhere.

To Romans like Pompeii,
it was incomprehensible

that the Jews would be so dedicated
to the worship of a single god.

Like the rest of the ancient world,

the Romans had
a huge pantheon of gods

but their most deeply-held belief
was that might made right.

That conviction had won the Romans
control of an enormous empire.

To them, Judea was only a tiny piece
in a great strategic puzzle.

They needed to conquer Judea

in order to gain easy access to Egypt.

But to the Jews,
Judea was the Promised Land

given to them by God
to be theirs alone.

This clash of cultures
between the Romans and the Jews

would lead to a vicious
and bloody conflict

that would last 200 years.

Even worse for the Jewish people,

it was a conflict that would pit
Jew against Jew as never before.

The Romans come into power

and it stimulates
an immediate debate among the Jews

about whether to revolt against them
or not to revolt

and effectively
from the very beginning

there were Jewish groups
that basically wanted to revolt

and others which cautioned, and said
"We really don't need to go so far. "

So these groups are vying
with one another constantly

in the period of Roman rule.

Before long, the fierce disagreements
between different groups of Jews

over how to deal with the Romans

would trigger a Jewish civil war.

The physical violence
between the different factions

grew from the depth
of their spiritual conflict.

Each group believed that it alone
understood the true will of God

as revealed in the Bible.

And each had nothing but contempt
for all who disagreed.

The Temple high priest
and his allies

formed the most wealthy and influential
of the Jewish groups.

The rituals that the priests
had been performing for centuries

had become so important
to their fellow Jews

that the Temple was the political
and economic heart of Jerusalem.

Each year, hundreds of thousands
of Jewish pilgrims

flooded the city's markets
to buy sheep, wheat, wine and oil

to bring as offerings to the Temple.

The pilgrims spent freely,

for according to biblical law,
offering sacrifices at the Temple

was the only way Jews
were permitted to worship God.

(PERCUSSlVE MIDDLE-EASTERN MUSIC)

Once inside the Temple

the pilgrims turned their offerings
over to the priests,

for they were the only ones allowed
to mediate between God and mankind.

If you walked into the Temple,

what you would see is priests
who had been designated as priests

simply because their fathers
were priests, only men.

You would also see Levites,
people whose fathers were Levites,

who were assisting these priests.

There would be animal sacrifices,
blood, guts...

all of the unpleasant smells
of animals being slaughtered

and you would have a real sense
of life and death there.

One of the most important rituals
the priests conducted each year

was Passover.

While in Jerusalem, the historian
Josephus attended the festival.

"It is a memorial of their delivery
from slavery in Egypt

"and they offer more sacrifices
than at any other festival.

"A group of at least ten
come with every sacrifice

"for it is not lawful for them
to feast singly by themselves.

"And many of us are twenty
in a company.

"An innumerable multitude
come there from the land,

"and even from beyond its borders,
to worship God. "

For the high priest and his allies,

temple rituals like Passover
were not only a spiritual outlet

but were the source
of great wealth and power.

So long as the Romans
did not interfere with the Temple,

they were willing to help the Romans
rule Jerusalem.

But there were other Jews who believed
that the high priest was a traitor.

From the day the Romans
took over Jerusalem,

Jewish rebels began
launching raids against them

from mountain
and desert hideouts.

They believed that
if they fought bravely enough

God would grant them
a miraculous victory

as in the Bible stories of old.

To deal with the rebels,
the Romans chose a commander

known both for his boundless ambition
and extreme cruelty.

An Arab prince named Herod.

SCHIFFMAN: Herod is perhaps one
of the most amazing characters in history.

What was the guy, really?

First of all, they debate,
was he Jewish, or not Jewish?

His mother was actually
an Arab princess,

so he wasn't Jewish.

Now, Herod had worked
under his father in the government

because Herod's father
was a kind of...

almost secretary of state,
but it means head of everything.

As a result of this, Herod was involved
in what we might call police actions.

And eventually he built up
enough of a power base

that he was able to make himself
king of the Jews.

To many Jews,

the crowning of a king who was not
a descendant of David was blasphemy.

And so the rebels decided
to come down from the mountains

and lead the people of Judea
in an all-out revolt.

But Herod had Rome behind him,

and according to Josephus,

he decided to make an example
of the rebels.

"Whole masses were slaughtered.

"In alleys,
crowded in their houses,

"and even taking refuge
in the Temple.

"There was no mercy
for either young or old,

"nor were the weakest women spared.

"Like madmen,
they took vengeance on all ages. "

The last of the rebels
fled to caves dug into cliffs,

where they were convinced Herod
would not be able to reach them.

SCHIFFMAN:
Herod was really a ruthless guy.

He would bring his soldiers
to these caves

where these rebels were hiding.

What he used to do is, he'd build
these scaffolds, lower soldiers down...

When the soldiers got down there,

they'd throw a sort of smoke bomb,
or smoke grenades, into these caves.

And when the women and children
came to the edge of the cave,

they'd yank them with hooks
and throw them to their death.

Once he'd tightened his grip
on the throne,

Herod did the unexpected.

Sensing the Temple's essential role

in the nation's cultural
and economic life,

he decided to make it into the most
impressive monument on earth

through a rebuilding project

that required mountains
of stone and gold.

MAN: The Temple in Jerusalem,

firstly, was one of the great
wonders of the world.

Tourists came to see it.

Maybe for our taste
it was a little bit glitzy

but it was golden,
it shimmered.

People thought it was one
of the most beautiful places on earth.

Gentiles came to bring sacrifices,
to offer gifts,

because they thought
it was a place with power,

that it represented something to them,
God's seat on earth.

And for Jewish people, of course,
it was quite literally that.

It was God enthroned on earth
in a place.

But no T emple beautification plan

could make the Jewish rebels
accept Herod as king of the Jews.

The rebels continued to fight

and Herod continued to kill them.

The endless violence was no surprise
to another group of Jews

who believed that God did not
want them to fight the Romans.

He wanted them to prepare
for the End of Days.

(WlND BLOWS)

On the lifeless, heat-scorched
shores of the Dead Sea

Iived a group of Jews
called the Essenes.

The Essenes had withdrawn
from civilisation

into an apocalyptic landscape

that reminded them at every moment
that the end was near.

To them, that was the only
possible explanation

for why God had allowed the Romans
to conquer Judea.

MAN: There are here deep echoes
from the biblical times,

reminding them that this had been a land
which God had given to Israel

and he had purged it of foreigners.

And now here were the foreigners
ruling once again.

So, what was to be done about this?

This required
some drastic new thing.

So the notion arose that
there must be some final act

introduced by God himself through
his chosen messengers or community

that would make things right again.

There must be an End of Days,

there must be a last time
when all would be made right.

The Essenes followed the cleanliness
rituals of the priesthood

and rejected both sex
and personal possessions.

They were determined to live
as perfectly as humanly possible

until the end came.

"There are about 4000 men
who live in this way

"and never marry wives.

"They teach the immortality of souls

"and esteem that
the rewards of righteousness

"are to be earnestly striven for. "

The Essenes spent much of their time

making new copies of the books of
the Hebrew Bible and other sacred texts

so that their eternal wisdom

would survive the final battle
between good and evil.

They were especially drawn
to the Book of Daniel

which spoke of the reward

that the righteous would receive
after the End of Days.

"It will be a time of trouble

"the like of which has never been
since the nation came into being.

"At that time,
your people will be rescued,

"all who are found
inscribed in the Book.

"And those who lead the many
to righteousness

"will be like the stars, forever. "

WOMAN: They believed that everything
was pre-ordained by God.

And that when the End of Days arrived,
there would be a 40-year-long war

between the forces of good
and the forces of evil.

They were the forces of good,
they called themselves the Sons of Light.

Everybody else,
including the other Jews,

were the forces of evil,
the Sons of Darkness.

And they believed that the outcome
of this 40-year war was pre-ordained

and that at the end of it,
they would be the victors.

The Essenes stored their writings

in caves they found in the cliffs
above the Dead Sea.

It was a plan that showed
remarkable foresight,

for two of their premonitions
would come true.

A time of trouble more terrible than
any the nation had seen was coming.

And their Dead Sea Scrolls
would survive it.

In 4 BC,
Jerusalem erupted in celebration.

After 40 years on the throne,
King Herod was dead.

Now all those determined to throw off
Roman rule saw their chance.

More and more armed groups
began roaming the countryside,

attacking isolated Roman garrisons

and looting the caravans
of merchants bound for Egypt.

But the rebels
did most of their fighting

not with the Romans,
but with their fellow Jews.

(HEAVY DOOR IS BOLTED)

For nothing enraged
the rebels more

than a Jew who had abandoned
Jewish traditions for Roman ones.

(DESOLATE MUSIC)

To the rebels, the worst culprits
were wealthy Jews

who broke the law
God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai,

restricting the enslavement
of fellow Jews.

The mistreated slaves
offered the rebels

a perfect opportunity
to add to their ranks.

(DOOR UNBOLTS)

And so they began
attacking the estate

of one wealthy Jew after another,

freeing the slaves and inviting them
to join the rebellion.

(DRUMBEAT)

"They have an unconquerable
love of freedom.

"For them,
God is the only lord and master.

"They think it little to submit
to torturous forms of death

"and punishment
of their family and friends

"if only they can call
no man master. "

In the eyes of the Romans,

these Jewish freedom fighters
were brigands and bandits

and that's how they're described
in the ancient sources.

In their own eyes,
and in the eyes of Jewish history,

they were not bandits at all,
they were like Robin Hood

or, if you will, Che Guevara.

They were revolutionary figures

and heroes of a resistance
against a foreign oppressor.

But the rebels,
too weak to overthrow Rome,

only succeeded
in plunging Judea into chaos.

For decades
the region remained trapped

in a vicious cycle
of Roman repression,

rebel uprisings
and civil war between Jews.

You've got Jewish groups,

some pro-revolutionary,
some anti-revolutionary,

fighting within themselves.

And you have, at the same time,
Roman procurators that are rapacious,

taking as much tax as they can

and not maintaining law and order.

At the same time, you have
Roman soldiers all over the place

with no respect for the Jews
and their religion.

So the whole thing is careening
towards an ultimate explosion.

But even as most Jews
fell into despair

about the disaster towards which
they seemed to be headed,

others were proposing
a very different vision of the future.

In the centuries since
the stories of Abraham, Moses,

and the other heroes of the Bible
had been collected,

scholars throughout Judea
had been studying

in search of lessons
on how to live.

One group of scholars
was called the Pharisees.

The most influential
of the Pharisees was Hillel.

Unlike the rebels, Hillel thought
the issue of who was ruling Judea

was of little importance.

What was important was to live
one's own life honestly and ethically

and treat one's fellow human beings
with mercy and compassion.

Hillel's philosophy was summed up
in three simple questions.

"If I am not for myself,
who shall be for me?

"If I am only for myself,
who am I?

"If not now, when? "

What Hillel teaches

is that each and every human being
is created in the image of God.

And the imperative to me
is to understand first my own image

and then to be able to recognise
the image in everybody else.

And when we've built a society

that recognises the image of God
in every human being,

then we have a society
which is just, which is moral,

which is compassionate and kind.

According to the stories
handed down about him,

Hillel was born
to a wealthy family

but as a young man
took a vow of poverty.

For half of each day,
Hillel chopped wood to support himself.

For the other half,
he studied the Bible.

Unlike the priests,
Hillel and his fellow Pharisees

believed that one did not have
to be a member of the priesthood

to communicate with God.

They had the revolutionary idea

that anyone could communicate
with God

simply by studying His word
in the Bible.

NETTER: The way to access God
through Pharisaic Judaism

is through study.

To be a priest,
one had to be born into it.

To be a king,
one had to be born into it.

To be a scholar,
one had to study.

And anybody could study.

Unlike the Essenes,

the Pharisees did not believe
in withdrawing from the world.

But how to live ethically

in the 'might makes right' world
of the Romans

was the subject of intense debate

between Hillel
and his great rival Shammai.

According to one story,

a passerby one day
mocked the two Pharisees

by asking them to explain the Torah
while standing on one foot.

Shammai angrily told the man
to go away.

NETTER:
When the man comes to Hillel,

he says "Teach me the Torah
while standing on one foot. "

Hillel says "What is hateful unto you,
do not do unto others.

"All the rest is commentary.

"Now go study. "

What Hillel did was to successfully
reduce all the tradition

to a single sound bite.

That sound bite is
that if you want to serve God

there's a way
that you have to treat people.

You cannot demonstrate
that you love God

if you hate people.

Hillel's vision of Judaism

would influence many others
in the years to come,

including a young carpenter
from Nazareth.

By 30 AD,

numerous preachers were responding
to the apocalyptic mood in Judea.

Some claimed to be messiahs,

come to lead a rebellion
against the Romans.

Others taught their followers how
to live amid the violence, like Hillel.

One preacher influenced
by Hillel's school of Judaism

was Jesus of Nazareth.

Hillel's admonition to treat others
as he would like to be treated

became, for Jesus, being willing
to turn the other cheek to your enemies.

Most of the ethics of Jesus,
the beautiful ideas you read about

in the Sermon on the Mount, or on the plain,
depending on what version you take,

these are the types of ethics
that the Pharisaic rabbis

Iike Hillel and Shammai
were talking about.

And this is something common
to Judaism and Christianity

and to our civilisation as a whole.

In his most famous sermon,

on a hilltop overlooking
the Sea of Galilee,

Jesus told his disciples

how they should respond
to the chaos that surrounded them.

"Blessed are the gentle,

"they shall have the earth
as inheritance.

"Blessed are the merciful,

"they shall have mercy
shown them.

"Blessed are the pure in heart,

"they shall see God.

"Blessed are the peacemakers,

"they shall be recognised
as children of God. "

Jesus' conviction that each
human being needed to strive

to make the world a better place,
was part of a Jewish tradition

that reached back
to the prophets of the Hebrew Bible.

MEEKS: The more we learn
about Judaism in the 1 st century,

especially about the variety of ways
of being Jewish,

the more Jewish Jesus looks.

The thought that this is a world in which
God will reign alone and supreme

is supremely Jewish.

The telling of parables
in order to clarify, make his points,

the very form of Jesus' rhetoric
is Jewish.

Like the Essenes,
Jesus was deeply influenced

by the prophecies in the Bible,

that during a period
of incredible upheaval

God would redeem the world
once and for all.

He began to preach
that the time had come.

MEEKS:
He goes around preaching

that the kingdom of God
is about to begin

and everyone must be ready
for this kingdom of God.

So he clearly is one of those...

eschatological prophets,
those people expecting the End of Days,

that we learn about
from the Dead Sea Scrolls,

that Josephus tells us about.

He's part of this ferment that is...
that feeds off the expectation

that some final act of God
must set the world right again.

With the countryside in turmoil

and talk everywhere of messiahs who
would lead the Jewish people to freedom,

the Roman authorities were constantly
arresting and crucifying

those considered troublemakers.

In 33 AD,

Jesus of Nazareth was one of those
singled out and crucified.

In the eyes of the Romans,

he was just one more
would-be Messiah

who would not be leading a revolt.

But Jesus' followers
among the Jews

believed that the kingdom
of which he was speaking

was not of this world,
but the next.

For the moment, these Jews, who
would come to be called Christians,

were just another
of the many groups of Jews

trying to understand the bloody
and chaotic world of Judea

in the 1 st century AD.

According to Josephus,
in 52 AD,

after years in which rebel attacks on
the Romans and their Jewish collaborators

were limited to the countryside,

everything changed.

A new band of rebels arose

who were determined
to carry the fight to Jerusalem.

"There sprang up another group,
which were called the Sicarii,

"who murdered men in the daytime
and in the heart of the city. "

To the Sicarii,
anyone who wasn't fighting the Romans

was a collaborator
and worthy of death.

They were called the Sicarii

for the long, thin daggers
they used in their attacks.

The Sicarii's first victim was
the most prominent Jew in Jerusalem,

the high priest of the Temple.

Then they embarked
on a wave of assassinations,

killing wealthy merchants
throughout the city.

"Many were slain every day

"and the fear men were in
was worse than the calamity itself,

"for everybody expected death
every hour,

"as men do in war. "

The willingness of the Sicarii
and their fellow rebels

to use murder
to achieve their aims

won them a name that would be
given forever after to extremists.

They were called Zealots.

KIRSCH: The Zealots were one of
several factions of freedom fighters

who took up arms against
Roman occupation and authority.

One faction among them,
the so-called Sicarii,

Iiterally invented the art of
political assassination and terror

by adopting the practice
of slipping into a crowd,

standing next to a Jew

who was assumed to be
a collaborator with the Romans,

stabbing him secretly,
then raising a cry of alarm.

In the panicked crowd,
the assassin would slip away

and the bloody corpse
would be left behind

as a reminder to any other Jew
ready to collaborate with Rome

that death was the price
of collaboration.

With the rebels
determined to revolt,

and other Jews convinced that
it would be insane to rebel against Rome,

the people of Jerusalem
could hardly have been more divided.

Then the Roman governor

did the only thing
that could possibly unite them.

He ordered an attack
on the Temple.

In 67 AD, Roman soldiers burst
through the gates of Herod's Temple,

bent on plundering it.

"The governor was eager to steal
the vast treasures of God which it held

"and his soldiers killed
all those they came upon

"as they forced their way in. "

Outraged at the attack
on the seat of God on earth,

rebels and non-rebels alike
united to repel the assault.

Then, in a fury,

they overwhelmed the small Roman garrison
stationed in Jerusalem

and forced it to flee the city.

(STREET HUBBUB)

With Jerusalem
suddenly free of Romans,

many in the city were seized
by a giddy euphoria.

The Zealots' dream
of an independent Judea

seemed tantalisingly
within their grasp.

But others argued

that more fighting
could only lead to catastrophe.

A follower of Hillel
named Yohanan ben Zakkai

was one of the most
passionate voices for peace.

At the risk of being targeted
by the Zealots for assassination,

Yohanan told his students that
it didn't matter who ruled Judea.

What mattered was
who ruled in their hearts.

He argued that what
truly pleased the Almighty

was not zealotry at all,
but something far simpler...

the acts of mercy and compassion
they showed to those around them.

SCHIFFMAN: It seems Yohanan ben Zakkai
was part of the peace party.

Numerous Jews, either because of
their own closeness to the Romans,

whether business or other reasons,

or simply because they were
absolutely convinced there was no hope

to do such a crazy thing
as revolt against Rome,

many Jews were really
against the revolt.

Yohanan ben Zakkai was one of those Jews
who felt that what needed to be done

was to get some form of
accommodation from the Romans

that would guarantee
Jewish religious freedom,

then leave things as they were,
with Roman rulers.

But Jerusalem was not yet ready
for Y ohanan's vision of Judaism.

From the steps of the Temple,

the Zealots made a public
declaration of war against Rome.

Convinced they were mad,

many other Jews decided to take up arms
to stop the Zealots.

Fighting at this point broke out

between those Jews and the rebellious Jews
who had taken refuge among them

and it was house to house,
at some point.

Different neighbourhoods
would belong to one party or the other

and the streets ran with blood.

After a vicious week-long civil war,
the Zealots were victorious.

(CROWD CRlES)

They celebrated their victory
by setting the city on fire.

"The Zealots set fire
to the high priest's home and the palaces.

"Then they carried the fire to the place
where the records were kept

"and burned the contracts it held,

"thereby dissolving all of their debts.

"This was also done that they might
persuade the multitude of the poor

"who were debtors,
to join in their insurrection. "

News of the Zealots' uprising
against Rome

soon reached the nearby city
of Caesarea.

Outraged, Romans and Syrians
in Caesarea

massacred thousands
of their Jewish neighbours.

In revenge,
Jews throughout Judea

began killing Syrians and Romans
living among them.

"It was common to see cities
filled with bodies,

"still lying unburied,

"and those of old men
mixed with women and infants, all dead.

"The whole region was full
of inexpressible calamities,

"while the fear was everywhere

"that there were even more
barbarous times to come. "

(HORSES GALLOP)

The Romans were determined
to crush the rebellion

before it inspired others
in their far-flung empire

to challenge their rule.

They dispatched their greatest general,
Vespasian, into Judea

to lead an army of over 60,000 men.

"Vespasian marched to the city of Gedara
and quickly took it,

"for he found it destitute
of any men fit for war.

"He then killed all the children,

"the Romans having no mercy
on any age whatever,

"and this was done out of the hatred
they bore the rebels. "

As news of Vespasian's atrocities
swept through Judea,

Jews throughout the region

began fleeing before his army
toward Jerusalem.

When the Roman army
finally reached the city,

Josephus estimated
that more than 1 00,000 people

were trapped inside its walls.

The Romans set up their camps
in full view of the city

in the hope that the mere sight
of their military might

would convince the people
of Jerusalem to surrender.

Their force was composed
of three battle-hardened legions

drawn from garrisons in Rome,
Egypt and Syria.

They were armed with catapults,
battering rams, siege engines-

the fearsome weapons of war that had
helped them conquer the world

from England to Persia.

But conquering Jerusalem
was still a daunting challenge.

The city was surrounded
by not one, but three walls,

which together
were nearly 60 feet thick.

And in the centre of the city,

the Temple with its own
massive walls and towers,

Ioomed as one of the most
formidable fortresses in the world.

But behind those walls
there was chaos.

SCHIFFMAN: The city of Jerusalem during
the revolt was under complete siege.

Food and water were not entering,

and inside, all normal governmental
institutions had broken down.

They were maintaining Temple sacrifice

but outside of the Temple
there were all these rebel armies,

actually, about six, controlling
different quarters of the city,

whose commanders were fighting
over what to do.

So you had really anarchy and fear

and, as Josephus describes it,
tremendous starvation.

Inside the city,

the catastrophe foretold
by Y ohanan ben Zakkai

was coming to pass.

The Zealots had begun fighting among
themselves for control of Jerusalem.

When one band of Zealots
broke into the territory of another,

they would inflict the worst damage
they could think of-

burning their rivals' food supply.

"They set on fire those houses
that were full of grain

"and all the other provisions.

"And as soon as they were
forced into a retreat,

"the same thing was done to them
by the others.

"Accordingly, it came to pass

"that almost all the grain
in the city was burned,

"which would have been sufficient
to survive a siege of many years. "

With the food supply decimated,

many decided their only hope
was to flee Jerusalem.

But the Zealots believed

God wanted the entire nation
to confront the Romans as one.

They issued an edict
that anyone who tried to leave

would be considered a traitor
and executed.

It's in many ways like the militarist
within any society in our own time.

Those that are following a military mode
in terms of the Islamic jihad

or in terms of...
those that we saw in Bosnia.

In other words, those that decide

that the only way to work
is through military means.

And that was a scary time
for all Jews in Jerusalem at that time

because most were not Zealots.

As the siege wore on,

the situation inside Jerusalem
grew more and more desperate.

"Of those who perished by famine,
the number was great

"and the miseries they underwent
were unspeakable,

"for if so much as the shadow
of any kind of food did anywhere appear,

"a war began,

"and the dearest friends fell to fighting
one with another about it. "

Soon, many people
became so desperate

that they were willing to risk death
at the hands of the Zealots.

So they would creep out little-known
doorways and gates to the city

and gather weeds to eat.

But outside the city walls,
they risked capture

and incredibly brutal treatment
at the hands of the Roman legionnaires.

MILES: The Nazi Holocaust
of the 20th century

has seemed to be an endless stream
of ghastly stories,

fiendish stories of... cruelty that
seems to defy the human imagination.

But there's an appalling stream
of such stories from...

from this Holocaust as well.

For example,

as people began to attempt to leave
the besieged city secretly,

when they were captured,

mercenaries working for Rome
would disembowel them,

thinking that they might have
swallowed gold or jewels

and that they were hoping
then to, you know, recover these

after they'd defecated them
later on.

This is not a strange
or unusual practice

on the part of people fleeing
during time of war.

Guessing that this
might have happened,

they literally eviscerated
these people,

Iooking for the occasional ruby
or gold coin.

The Romans also took many of the men,
women and children they captured

and crucified them.

MILES: At the time of the siege
of Jerusalem, thousands were crucified.

The historian Josephus says

that the hills around the city
were deforested

so many trees were chopped down

to make crosses
on which to crucify Jews.

Josephus also describes what
I would call terror crucifixions.

The city was still under siege,
still holding out against the Romans,

but crosses were erected
on the hillsides around it

so that the people inside
could see what awaited them

if they continued their resistance.

(M I DDLE-EASTERN M USlC)

Forced to choose between torture
at the hands of the Romans,

or starvation
at the hands of the Zealots,

the people of Jerusalem
were in complete despair.

"A deep silence

"and a kind of deadly night
seized upon the city.

"Those that were distressed
by the famine were desirous to die

"and those already dead
were thought happy. "

It was the last chance for anyone
hoping to escape alive.

And yet, it was only
the decaying bodies of the dead

that the Zealots
would allow to leave.

Then, late one night,
a procession approached a city gate.

It was a group of students carrying
the body of Yohanan ben Zakkai,

who had advocated peace
instead of war.

According to the Jewish book
of tradition and law, the Talmud,

the Zealots were suspicious.

"Some of the guards asked
'Who is this? '

"The disciples answered
'A dead body.

'Don't you know that dead bodies may
not be kept in Jerusalem overnight? '

"Then one of the Zealots decided
to drive a dagger through the body.

"But one of the disciples
restrained him, by saying

'Do you want to be remembered

'as the man who pierced
the body of the Master? '

"So they opened the gate
for the bier and it left the city. "

The students' trick had worked.

Outside the gate,
Y ohanan sprang up alive from the bier

on which he had been
surrounded by rotting meat.

Then he hurried away from Jerusalem.

Yohanan was convinced

the starving rebels could no longer
defend the city or the Temple.

And he had decided

that the very survival of Judaism
was on his shoulders.

After a four-month siege,

Rome's legions finally broke through
the first wall of the city.

The Zealots rushed to meet them
and fought with tremendous bravery.

But they could not prevent the Romans

from fighting their way
to the heart of the city, the Temple.

"The Romans proceeded
as far as the holy house itself,

"then one of them set fire to it.

"Now the Jews suffered nothing
to restrain their force,

"nor tried to save their lives,

"since their holy house
was perishing. "

The T emple, the only place on earth,
according to the Bible,

where God could be worshipped,

was laid to waste by the Romans.

"As for a great part of the people,

"they were weak and without arms...

"and had their throats cut
wherever they were caught.

"In the Temple, around the altar,

"lay dead bodies
heaped one upon another

"and at the steps going up to it
ran a great quantity of their blood.

"In the history of the world,

"no nation has ever suffered
such a calamity. "

The destruction of the Temple
in the year 70

was the greatest catastrophe and trauma
to happen to Jewish people,

I would argue, until our own time
and the Holocaust.

It was the centre
of their economic life,

as if the Federal Reserve
was housed in the Temple.

It was the centre of judicial life.

The supreme court
was housed in the Temple.

It was the centre
of religious life,

as if the high priest was the chief rabbi,
centred in that building.

And in a matter of hours,
it was gone.

When the Temple was destroyed,

everything was gone.

There was no other branch
of government

because it was all invested
in the priesthood

and the high priest and the Temple.

With the seat of God on earth
in ruins,

the religion of the priests
and their rituals was lost forever.

How would Judaism and the Jews
survive?