ousand Roman troops and thirteen hundred allies, and desperate war
seemed now inevitable. Agrippa, knowing how fatal it would be to the
Jewish nation, attempted to avert it. He argued to infatuated men. Certius
undertook to storm Jerusalem, the head-quarters of the insurrection, but
failed, and was obliged to retreat, with loss of a great part of his
army--a defeat such as the Romans had not received since Varus was
overpowered in the forests of Germany.

(M269) Judea was now in open rebellion against the whole power of Rome--a
mad and desperate revolt, which could not end but in the political ruin of
the nation. Great preparations were made for the approaching contest, in
which the Jews were to fight single-handed and unassisted by allies. The
fortified posts were in the hands of the insurgents, but they had no
organized and disciplined forces, and were divided among themselves.
Agrippa, the representative of the Herodian kings, openly espoused the
cause of Rome. The only hope of the Jews was in their stern fanaticism,
their stubborn patience, and their daring valor. They were to be justified
for their insurrection by all those principles which animate oppressed
people striving to be free, and they had glorious precedents in the
victories of the Maccabees; but it was their misfortune to contend against
the armies of the masters of the world. They were not strong enough for
revolt.

(M270) The news of the insurrection, and the defeat of a Roman prefect,
made a profound sensation at Rome. Although Nero affected to treat the
affair with levity, he selected, however, the ablest general of the
empire, Vespasian, and sent him to Syria. The storm broke out in Galilee,
whose mountain fastnesses were intrusted by the Jews to Joseph, the son of
Matthias--lineally descended from an illustrious priestly family, with the
blood of the Asmonaean running in his veins--a man of culture and learning--a
Pharisee who had at first opposed the insurrection, but drawn into it
after the defeat of Certius. He is better known to us as the historian
Josephus. His measures of defence were prudent and vigorous, and he
endeavored to unite the various parties in the contest which he knew was
desperate. He raised an army of one hundred thousand men, and introduced
the Roman discipline, but was impeded in his measures by party dissensions
and by treachery. In the city of Jerusalem, Ananias, the high priest, took
the lead, but had to contend with fanat