Resistance to Empire: the Jews

THE EAGLE HAS LANDED: ROME AND THE CHALLENGE OF EMPIRE
5. Resistance to Empire: the Jews

Resistance to Roman rule was natural and widespread, from western Spain to far-off Parthia.299 Some attempts at resistance were startlingly successful, like the German destruction of three legions in 9 AD. Julius Caesar did not stay so long in Gaul merely to practice his Gallic accent, and it was not without good cause that Augustus had his close colleague Agrippa away at the wars for such lengthy periods. Oderint dum metuant, ‘Let them hate, so long as they fear’, was not simply the motto which Suetonius ascribes to Caligula, but also, broadly speaking, the policy which Rome was bound to follow across the board, granted its combination of proud history and deep ideology. Fighting and killing, crushing opposition by a combination of sheer force and strategic skill: that was what Rome, better than most, knew how to do...