The prosperity and peace of the Roman empire as a whole was not shared by the Jews, whose fortunes sank to their lowest ebb during these years. Three disastrous wars and the loss of their homeland in Judaea had a profound effect on all aspects of Jewish national and religious life both at the time and in the following centuries.

THE GREAT REVOLT AND ITS AFTERMATH

The rise to power of the Flavian dynasty was intimately connected to the demise of the Jewish state, which had declared its independence in a.d. 66. The competing factions which struggled for power in Jerusalem in a.d. 69 had extra scope for their ambition when, in June of that year, the Roman legate Vespasian called off his impending assault on the city in order to concentrate on his bid for power in Rome. That power, once achieved, was justified in large measure by propaganda about the success of the new emperor in the suppression of the Jews. Titus, in the closing months of the war in a.d. 70, pressed on against the great walls of the capital with exceptional vigour, ignoring opportunities to starve out the defenders in his haste to speed the victory. In August the Temple was burnt down by the victorious troops and Jerusalem was razed as if it had never existed; only fragments of the massive fortifications remained. Coins, and the dedication of a temple to Pax in a.d. 76, proclaimed the restoration of the Pax Deorum by the new emperor: the gods delighted in the extinction of the sanctuary where Jewish atheism, directed to an invisible entity, was a reproach to genuine religion.