What the Roman leaders said to the Jews

My website was hacked on early November, and some, I think, good blogposts from the past need to be restored, especially for my many new European readers (German,  Spanish and French) who never saw it before, so here they are for you.

What follows is an eternal verity as spoken by the Roman general Titus, a brilliant, eloquent, humane yet exasperated soldier-statesman, on the occasion of his crushing victory over the Jews after his frustrating attempt to negotiate with them 1939 years ago………………

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It was the year 70; the Jews had rebelled against the Roman Empire and after four years lost utterly; their semitic deity had not  saved them; the city of Jerusalem and the Temple were about to be annihilated — if they spoke insolently in their utter defeat to the victor.

Wikipedia has a fairly vivid  and also accurate account: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Jerusalem_(70)

Wealthy money-lending Jews were spread throughout the Roman Empire and beyond, especially in Babyon (modern Iraq), but there were no mass-media for them to control, and they did not control the currency either. When the Jews of  Palestine rebelled against mighty Aryan Rome, the legions and the catapults came…sixty thousand white men of Rome, and General Titus, whose father was the emperor Vespasian.

 

Titus was of the noble family of  the Flavians, from the Latin word flavus, meaning “blond.” He had served with distinction in Britain,  Germany and in the four-year reconquest of Palestine. Later he, and then his brother Domitian, served as Roman emperors, ruling the one hundred million subjects of this two-thousand-mile wide empire.

The Flavian Amphitheater, known by another name because of  its colossal size, was built between 70 and 80 to honor Titus’ crushing of the Jewish revolt. A Jewish “queen” named  Berenice (Bernice) took up with Titus after the revolt was crushed, but when the Romans were scandalized at the notion of any Roman leader consorting with a Jewess, he got rid of her.

Roman historians said Titus was a fair and humane general (appealing many times to the Jews to surrrender) and later he proved to be a wise and very good emperor. He also organized rapid relief for the region around Pompeii when Mount Vesuvius infamously erupted and covered the city.

Suetonius  wrote:

Titus…was the delight and darling of the human race; he had such surpassing ability, by nature, art, or good fortune, that he won the affections of all men even while he was emperor, which was no easy task.

But the Talmud (says Wikipedia) informs us that he had sex with a whore on a scroll of the Torah…..and the Holy Talmud claims he died because an insect flew up his nose and grew to the size of a bird, eating his brain out…..

In any case….

Titus became furious that the Jews would not surrender after many entreaties, and then when they finally realized they were utterly beaten, they demanded free passage out of the city to go out “to the wilderness”!

The  mighty Roman realized to his amazement (as his speech below will show) that the Jews demanded their complete escape scot-free after a four-year rebellion despite having no bargaining chips at all — except their own egos and sense of entitlement.

Comrade Leif from Norway has sent me a  key excerpt from a book by the ancient Jewish soldier and author Josephus, who actually fought in the Jewish revolt and then surrendered. In his The Wars of the Jews Josephus transmits to us General Titus’  words to the defeated yet still arrogant Judaei.

This speech may seem “high-falutin’” to us today, but that is because we Americans have been “dumbed down” and taught, in novelist Tom Wolfe’s  words, a kind of “proletarian  chic.” After eight years of George Bush, it seems a miracle that leaders can talk at all…or make any sense, or speak any truth.

The ancient Greek and Roman aristocrats at least were all trained orators, and eloquence was highly admired, especially on important occasions.  Titus was known as an excellent orator in both Greek and his native Latin.

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Book VI,  Chapter  VI of The Wars of  the Jews:

As  for those priests that kept themselves still upon the wall of the holy house, there was a boy that, out of the thirst he was in, desired some of the Roman guards to give him their right hands [handshake] as a security [promise] for his life, and confessed he was very thirsty.

These guards commiserated his age, and the distress he was in, and gave him their right hands accordingly. So he came down himself [outside the walls  to  a well], and drank some water, and filled the vessel he had with him when he came to them with water — and then ran off, and fled away to his own friends; nor could any of those guards overtake him; but still they reproached him for his perfidiousness.

To which he made this answer: “I have not broken the agreement; for the security I had given was not to stay with you, but only to come down safely, and take up some water; both of which things I have performed, and thereupon I think myself to have been faithful to my promise.”

Hereupon those whom the child had imposed upon admired his cunning, and that on account of his age.

On the fifth day afterward, the priests that were pined with the famine came down, and when they were brought to Titus by the guards, they begged for their lives; but he replied, that the time of pardon was over as to them, and that this very holy house [the  Temple], on whose account only they could justly hope to be preserved, was destroyed; and that it was agreeable to their office that priests should perish with the house itself to which they belonged. So he ordered them to be put to death.

2. But as for the [Jewish] tyrants themselves, and those that were with them, when they found that they were encompassed on every side, and, as it were, walled round, without any method of escaping, they desired to treat with Titus by word of mouth.

Accordingly, such was the kindness of his nature, and his desire of preserving the city from destruction, joined to the advice of his friends, who now thought the robbers were come to a [better] temper, that he placed himself on the western side of the outer [court of the] temple; for there were gates on that side above the Xystus, and a bridge that connected the upper city to the temple. This bridge it was that lay between the tyrants and Caesar, and parted them; while the multitude stood on each side; those of the Jewish nation about Sinran and John [the two Jewish rebel leaders], with great hopes of pardon; and the Romans about Caesar, in great expectation how Titus would receive their supplication.

So Titus charged his soldiers to restrain their rage, and to let their spears alone, and appointed an interpreter between them, which was a sign that he was the conqueror, and first began the discourse, and said:

“I hope you, sirs, are now satisfied with the miseries of your country, you who have not had any just notions either of our great power or of your own great weakness, but have, like madmen, after a violent and inconsiderate manner, made such attempts, as have brought your people, your city, and your holy house to destruction.

You have been the men that have never left off rebelling since Pompey first conquered you, and have, since that time, made open war with the Romans.

Have you depended on your multitude, while a very small part of the Roman soldiery have been strong enough for you? Have you relied on the fidelity of your confederates? And what nations are there, out of the limits of our dominion, that would choose to assist the Jews before the Romans? Are your bodies stronger than ours? Nay, you know that the [powerful] Germans themselves are our servants. Have you stronger walls than we have? Pray, what greater obstacle is there than the wall of the ocean, with which the Britons are encompassed, and yet they do adore the arms of the Romans. Do you exceed us in courage of soul, and in the sagacity of your commanders? Nay, indeed, you cannot but know that the very Carthaginians have been conquered by us.

It can therefore be nothing certainly but the kindness of us Romans which has encouraged you against us; who, in the first place, have given you this land to possess; and, in the next place, have set over you kings of your own nation; and, in the third place, have preserved the laws of your forefathers to you, and have permitted you to live, either by yourselves, or among others, as it should please you: and, what is our chief favor of all, we have given you permission to gather up that tribute which is paid to [your] god with such other gifts that are dedicated to him; nor have we called those that carried these donations to account, nor prohibited them;

till at length you became richer than we ourselves, even when you were our enemies; and you made preparations for war against us with our own money;

nay, after all, when you were in the enjoyment of all these advantages, you turned your too great plenty against those that gave it you, and, like merciless serpents, have thrown out your poison against those that treated you kindly.

I suppose, therefore, that you might despise the slothfulness of Nero [the previous Roman emperor], and, like limbs of the body that are broken or dislocated, you did then lie quiet, waiting for some other time, though still with a malicious intention, and have now showed your distemper to be greater than ever, and have extended your desires as far as your impudent and immense hopes would enable you to do it.

At this time my father came into this country [with his Roman legions], not with a design to punish you for what you had done under Cestius, but to admonish you; for had he come to overthrow your nation, he would have run directly to your fountain-head [water  supply], and would have immediately laid this city waste; whereas he went and burnt Galilee and the neighboring parts, and thereby gave you time for repentance; which instance of humanity you took for an indication of weakness, and nourished your impudence on our mildness.

When Nero was gone out of the world, you did as the wickedest wretches would have done, and encouraged yourselves to act against us during our civil dissensions [after Nero was overthrown, there was chaos], and abused that time when both I and my father were gone away to Egypt to make preparations for this war.

A Roman coin honoring Titus, and showing an Aryan Roman soldier towering over a captive Jew.

Nor were you ashamed to raise disturbances against us when we were made emperors, and this while you had experienced how mild we had been, when we were no more than generals of the army.

[General Vespasian and his son Titus both invaded Judea, but Vespasian left for Rome to become emperor. Titus then finished crushing the Jews.]

But when the government was devolved upon us, and all other people did thereupon lie quiet, and even foreign nations sent embassies, and congratulated our access to the government, then did you Jews show yourselves to be our enemies. You sent embassies to those of your nation that are beyond Euphrates to assist you in your raising disturbances; new walls were built by you round your city, seditions arose, and one tyrant contended against another, and a civil war broke out among you; such indeed as became none but so wicked a people as you are.

I then came to this city, as unwillingly sent by my father, and received melancholy injunctions from him. When I heard that the people were disposed to peace, I rejoiced at it; I exhorted you to leave off these proceedings before I began this war; I spared you even when you had fought against me a great while; I gave my right hand [handshake] as security to the deserters; I observed what I had promised faithfully.

When they fled to me, I had compassion on many of those that I had taken captive; I tortured those that were eager for war in order to restrain them. It was unwillingly that I brought my engines of war against your walls; I always prohibited my soldiers, when they were set upon your slaughter, from their severity against you. After every victory I persuaded you to peace, as though I had been myself conquered. When I came near your temple, I again departed from the laws of war, and exhorted you to spare your own sanctuary, and to preserve your holy house to yourselves. I allowed you a quiet exit out of it, and security for your preservation; nay, if you had a mind, I gave you leave to fight in another place. Yet have you still despised every one of my proposals, and have set fire to your holy house with your own hands.

And now, vile wretches, do you desire to treat with me by word of mouth? To what purpose is it that you would save such a holy house as this was, which is now destroyed? What preservation can you now desire after the destruction of your temple? Yet do you stand still at this very time in your armor; nor can you bring yourselves so much as to pretend to be supplicants even in this your utmost extremity. O miserable creatures! What is it you depend on to save you now? Are not your people dead? Is not your holy house gone? Is not your city in my power? And are not your very lives in my hands? And do you still deem it a part of valor to die? However, I will not imitate your madness. If you throw down your arms, and deliver up your bodies to me, I grant you your lives; and I will act like a mild master of a family; what cannot be healed shall be punished, and the rest I will preserve for my own use.”

3. To that offer of Titus they made this reply: That they could not accept of it, because they had sworn never to do so; but they desired they might have leave to go through the wall that had been made about them, with their wives and children; for that they would go into the desert, and leave the city to him. At this Titus had great indignation, that when they were in the case of men already taken captives, they should pretend to make their own terms with him, as if they had been conquerors.

So he ordered this proclamation to be made to them, That they should no more come out to him as deserters, nor hope for any further security; for that he would henceforth spare nobody, but fight them with his whole army; and that they must save themselves as well as they could; for that he would from henceforth treat them according to the laws of war. So he gave orders to the soldiers both to burn and to plunder the city…

Jerusalem and the Temple go up in holy smoke……a holocaust in the Greek meaning of  a “total burning”….A million Jews perished and 100,000 became slaves.

Madness, you Jews reading this blog, is when you keep acting the same way toward our powerful Aryan  nations  – utterly hateful — yet somehow you keep expecting a different outcome than AD 70.

The Arch of Titus still stands proudly today in Rome, along with the mighty Colosseum that commemorated the crushing of the Jews.

Inside the archway on the left, the carrying out of the Temple’s  Menorah is depicted. The Jews have not had a real temple for nearly 2,000 years, and  have turned instead of sacrifices to their endless debates  (”pilpul”) about the meaning of texts in the Talmud and justifications for their hatred of “the nations,” whom they call “cattle” (in Hebrew goyeem) and rather ironically accuse of being afflicted with racism and jealousy.

The  Romans decided simply that they had HAD it with the Jews and as they said in Latin, the Jews’ “odium generis humani” (in English, “hatred of the human race”).

Titus reportedly refused to accept an olive-leaf victory wreath from his soldiers, growling that there was “no merit in vanquishing a people who have been forsaken by their own god.”

The Arch of Titus provides the only contemporary depiction of sacred articles from the Temple, such as the Menorah, trumpets and the “Table of Showbread.” Horrified Jews refuse to walk under this arch to this day, remembering how they lost their base of operations.

Only sixty-five years later the Romans returned in even more wrath.

Another wise and humane emperor, Hadrian, had arisen in this “century of the good emperors.” At the beginning of his reign the gifted, sensitive, artistic, poetry-composing, bearded (and even bisexual) emperor, a huge admirer of Hellenic culture, offered generously to rebuild their destroyed Temple……

But Jewish misbehavior so enraged him that he cancelled the plan.  When the Neanderjews then rebelled under their skillful general, Bar Kochba, Hadrian personally saw to it that the Jews’ power base in Palestine was utterly destroyed.

He banned circumcision as an illegal mutilation of the human body, banned the Torah, changed the province’s name from Judaea to Syria Palaestina, slaughtered 500,000 Jews, wiped out hundreds of cities and villages, annihilated Jerusalem itself — and renamed the new Roman city built on its site “Aelia Capitolina,” with big statues of Jupiter and of himself standing where once the Jews’ temple had stood.

I’d say he was pretty mad…..

Hadrian’s  action would be the equivalent of our 1970s president, Jimmy Carter, deciding to “nuke” the State of Israel to save civilization, compassion and decency.

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Hadrian,  in some ways the ultimate wine-and-cheese leftist, after being very pro-Jewish initially ended up personally leading the armies that annihilated Judaea as an affront to all the values of civilization. A man of peace who built a vast wall across northern Britain to keep the Scots out rather than fight them, Hadrian became militantly anti-Jewish. A movie about this great emperor is planned for release in 2010…..

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