Product Description

In AD 70, after a war that had flared sporadically for four years, three Roman legions under the future Emperors Vespasian and his son Titus surrounded, laid siege to, and eventually devastated the city of Jerusalem, destroying completely the magnificent Temple which had been built by Herod only eighty years earlier. What brought about this extraordinary conflict, with its extraordinary consequences? This superb book, by one of the world’s leading scholars of the ancient Roman and Jewish worlds, narrates and explains this titanic struggle, showing why Rome’s interests were served by this policy of brutal hostility, and how the first generation of Christians first distanced themselves from its Jewish origins and then became increasingly hostile to Jews as their influence spread within the empire. The book thus also provides an exceptional and original account of the origins of anti-Semitism, whose history has had often cataclysmic reverberations down to our own time.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #36098 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-31
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 656 pages

Diarmaid MacCulloch, the Guardian
'Martin Goodman's massive new treatment of two crucial centuries of Jewish
history should be read by anyone seeking seriously to understand modern
Middle Eastern tangles'

Paul Johnson, the Tablet
'This is an important book, on a difficult subject: the reason why the
Romans, who had so much in common with the Jews, sought to destroy the Jews
and Judaism completely. Only one man could have written it.'

Tom Holland, Sunday Times
'Sombre and magisterial ... a brilliant comparative survey of the two very
different civilisations'

Customer Reviews

Comments by Michael Calum Jacques author of '1st Century Radical'.
It was my pleasure to be supervised by Prof Martin Goodman whilst I was conducting research into aspects of First Century Palestine at St Cross College, Oxford.

This chunky tome (even in paperback) spreads some 650 pages and is dense with valuable information and historical observations; it is a referential fund with respect to the areas of interfacing and interaction between the forces of Roman imperialism and the culture of the Jews.

But this is far more than either merely a cultural or an historical study; for example, Prof Goodman expounds an entire thesis regarding the origin and subsequent development and expansion of the messianic movement, amongst other things. In fact, more than one previous reviewer has been somewhat overwhelmed by the sheer density of the historical data contained herein.

As ever, Prof Goodman makes deft use of his sources and his treatment of Flavius Josephus is a model which most writers can only hope to aspire towards. Despite its length and scope, the author knows what to omit as well as what to include; apart from an abundance of pertinent observations, the reader is spared overbearing philosophizing although, inevitably, it is difficult to produce studies on events like the probable mass suicide at Masala without including a degree of comment, be that implicit or explicit.

This book is probably not something to read casually and deserves a notebook by its side. As a single volume reference book which 'does what it says on the cover' this reviewer has absolutely no hesitation in recommending it on the bases of its sound, thorough, scholarship and its general - albeit demanding in parts - readability.

Michael Calum Jacques

Comments by Michael Calum Jacques author of '1st Century Radical'.

It was my pleasure to be supervised by Prof Martin Goodman whilst I was conducting research into aspects of First Century Palestine at St Cross College Oxford.

This chunky tome (even in paperback) spreads some 650 pages and is dense with valuable information and historical observations; it is a referential fund with respect to the areas of interfacing and interaction between the forces of Roman imperialism and the culture of the Jews.

But this is far more than either merely a cultural or an historical study; for example, Prof Goodman expounds an entire thesis regarding the origin and subsequent development and expansion of the messianic movement, amongst other things. In fact, more than one previous reviewer has been somewhat overwhelmed by the sheer density of the historical data contained herein.

As ever, Prof Goodman makes deft use of his sources and his treatment of Flavius Josephus is a model which most writers can only hope to aspire towards. Despite its length and scope, the author knows what to omit as well as what to include; apart from an abundance of pertinent observations, the reader is spared overbearing philosophizing although, inevitably, it is difficult to produce studies on events like the probable mass suicide at Masala without including a degree of comment, be that implicit or explicit.

This book is probably not something to read casually and deserves a notebook by its side. As a single volume reference book which 'does what it says on the cover' this reviewer has absolutely no hesitation in recommending it on the bases of its sound, thorough, scholarship and its general - albeit demanding in parts - readability.

Michael Calum Jacques

Two millenia on, reprocussions for us all...
A major historical faultline in the history of the world is the destruction of the Jewish temple by the Roman army in 70 CE. This truly the point of origin of the crisis in the Middle East, and is a starting point of the Jewish Diaspora and central event in the history of the Jewish faith and the genesis of Christianity. By comparison with the tonnage of popular works on Greece, Egypt, and Rome, this moment of history seems strangely neglected. No longer.

This book is a singularly professional and readable history by a fine writer and a highly effective scholar. It consists of parallel histories of the two cities, their inhabitants, the faiths they represented and the cultures that existed amongst them, and is a fascinating comparison of two Mediterranean cultures strongly influenced by Hellenistic Greek culture yet so completely alien to each other.

The book rests on a fine reading of the controversial figure of Josephus, the Jewish historian who changed sides during the revolt and wrote a history of the Jewish war for a predominantly Roman audience. The evaluation of this talented but ideologically evasive individual is one of the delights of the book.

This is a scholarly yet accessible example of ancient history. If you enjoy the work of Robin Lane Fox, I think you will be at home here. Similarly, if your reading centres on the early history of Christianity, you will find a vital perspective. All readers, I think, would benefit from Goodman's elegant discussion of a clash of civilisations that has stark implications for the world two millennia after it occurred.