Pompey’s Conquest of Jerusalem

Appian was a Greek historian of Rome born in Alexandria at the turn of the second century. He witnessed the Jewish uprisings in his native city in 116 and 117 CE and later relocated to Rome and acquired citizenship. His multivolume work on Roman history was not written in the tradition of the great classical or later Roman historians but was instead structured ethnographically, focusing on specific lands and peoples that fell under Rome’s imperial sovereignty. In a sweeping overview of history, Appian describes how the Roman Empire took over the Seleucid Empire beginning in the late second century BCE, eventually coming into possession of Judaea in 63 BCE under Pompey. Volume 11, called Syriaca (Syrian War), focuses on the history of the Seleucids and the Roman wars against Antiochus III. In accounting for the decline of the Seleucid Empire, Appian mentions Pompey’s conquest of Judaea. Appian sees the successive waves of Jewish revolts as the reason for the Roman poll tax (fiscus Iudaicus) levied on the Jews of his time. The Jews embarked on a series of rebellions, and suppressing them necessitated the destruction of Jerusalem by Pompey, Vespasian, and Hadrian, the last of whom Appian describes as a contemporary. It was because of their recalcitrance, Appian asserts, that the Jews were subjected to heavier taxation than other populations within the empire.