Troubles Under Cumanus

After the death of Herod, the ruler of Chalcis, Claudius set Agrippa, the son of Agrippa, over his uncle’s kingdom, while the governorship of the rest of the province passed from Alexander to Cumanus. Under him disturbances began, and once again Jews were destroyed. The crowds had gathered at Jerusalem for the feast of unleavened bread, and the Roman cohort had taken its stand on the roof of the temple colonnade, for armed troops always keep watch at the festivals in case the assembled crowd should start a revolt. One of the soldiers pulled up his garment, bent over indecently, turned his backside to the Jews, and made a noise to match his posture. [a]

The whole crowd was furious at this and clamored for Cumanus to punish the soldier, while the less sober of the young men and the naturally rebellious part of the nation began to fight, snatching up stones and throwing them at the soldiers. Cumanus, afraid that the whole people would rush upon him, sent for more heavy infantry. As these poured into the colonnades, an uncontrollable panic fell on the Jews, and they turned and fled from the temple into the city. The crush at the exits was so violent that more than thirty thousand were trampled and crushed to death by one another. The feast became a time of mourning for the whole nation and of weeping in every household.

This disaster was followed by another disturbance, the work of robbers. On the public road near Beth-horon, robbers fell upon the baggage of one Stephen, a slave of Caesar, as it was being carried along, and plundered it. Cumanus sent men around and ordered the people of the nearby villages brought to him in chains, charging them with not having pursued and caught the robbers. There one of the soldiers found a copy of the sacred law in a village, tore the book to pieces, and threw it into the fire. The Jews were thrown into confusion as if their whole country had been set ablaze. Drawn together by their religion as if by some engine, at a single summons they all ran together to Cumanus at Caesarea, begging him not to let the man who had so outraged God and their law go unpunished. Since the crowd would not be quiet without some satisfaction, he had the soldier brought out and ordered him led to execution through the midst of his accusers. And the Jews went home. [d]

Next came a clash between Galileans and Samaritans. At a village called Gema, which lies in the great plain of Samaria, a Galilean was killed while a large number of Jews were going up to the feast. At this a great many people came running together from Galilee to make war on the Samaritans. Their leading men, however, went to Cumanus and begged him, before the harm was past remedy, to come over into Galilee and punish those responsible for the murder; only in this way could the crowd be broken up before it came to war. But Cumanus put their petitions behind the business he had in hand and sent the petitioners away with nothing done. [e]

When news of the murder reached Jerusalem, it threw the crowds into turmoil. Abandoning the feast, they rushed off toward Samaria without generals, and would listen to none of the magistrates who tried to hold them back. The robber and rebel element among them was led by Eleazar, son of Dinaeus, and Alexander. These fell upon the people living on the borders of the toparchy of Acrabatene, killed them without sparing any age, and set the villages on fire.

Cumanus took one squadron of cavalry, called the Sebastenes, from Caesarea and came to the aid of those being plundered. He captured many of Eleazar’s followers and killed still more. As for the rest of the crowd bent on fighting the Samaritans, the rulers of Jerusalem ran out to them clothed in sackcloth, with ashes poured on their heads, and begged them to turn back. They must not provoke the Romans against Jerusalem by taking revenge on the Samaritans. Let them have pity on their country and their temple, on their own children and wives, all of which were in danger of being destroyed to avenge a single Galilean. The Jews were persuaded by this and dispersed. But many turned to robbery, since they could do it without fear of punishment, and all over the country there was plundering, and the bolder men rose in revolt. [g]

The leading Samaritans went to Ummidius Quadratus, the governor of Syria, at Tyre, and asked for justice against those who had ravaged their country. The Jewish notables were there as well, with the high priest Jonathan, son of Ananus. They said that the Samaritans had started the trouble with their murder, but that Cumanus was to blame for what followed, because he had refused to pursue those who committed it.

Quadratus put both sides off for the time being, saying that when he came to the places concerned he would look into every detail. Later he went to Caesarea and crucified all those whom Cumanus had taken alive. From there he went on to Lydda, where he heard the Samaritans again, and sending for eighteen of the Jews who he had learned had taken part in the fighting, he had them beheaded. Two others of the most powerful men, together with the high priests Jonathan and Ananias, Ananias’s son Ananus, and some other Jewish notables, he sent up to Caesar, and likewise the most prominent of the Samaritans. He also ordered Cumanus and Celer the tribune to sail for Rome to give Claudius an account of what had happened. When he had done all this, he went up from Lydda to Jerusalem, and finding the crowd celebrating the feast of unleavened bread without disturbance, he returned to Antioch. [i]

At Rome Caesar heard Cumanus and the Samaritans. Agrippa was there, passionately championing the Jews, since many of the powerful were standing by Cumanus. Caesar condemned the Samaritans, ordered three of their most powerful men put to death, and banished Cumanus. Celer he sent back in chains to Jerusalem, with orders that he be handed over to the Jews for torture, dragged around the city, and then beheaded.

After this Claudius sent out Felix, the brother of Pallas, as procurator of Judea, together with Samaria, Galilee and Perea. He moved Agrippa from Chalcis to a greater kingdom, giving him the province that had been Philip’s, that is, Trachonitis, Batanea and Gaulanitis, and he added to it the kingdom of Lysanias and the tetrarchy that had been Varus’s. Claudius himself died after governing the empire thirteen years, eight months and twenty days. He left Nero as his successor in the empire. He had adopted him as heir through the deceptions of his wife Agrippina, although he had a legitimate son, Britannicus, by Messalina, his former wife, and a daughter, Octavia, whom he had married to Nero. He also had a daughter, Antonia, by Paetina. [j]