Palinurus
The Living Force
Re: Historical Events Database
Thank you for your prompt reaction, Laura.
I've read your new entry and noticed it corresponds fairly well with the version wikipedia gives of those events. However, I have a problem with you dating it in 71 AD, as the consensus seems to be that this happened in 70 AD. See this table, for instance. Maybe you could reconsider the date; I didn't edit anything there for now.
That Titus refused credit, is also mentioned by Josephus but in less outright clarity than your source has. Josephus's emphasis is on the fact that Titus specifically and repeatedly ordered the temple to be spared but that his soldiers in the heat of battle ignored those commands, so that Titus didn't deserve any personal blame for its destruction. According to Josephus it has to be considered as an act of God in retaliation for the evil deeds of the Jewish occupying factions against each other, against the holiness of the temple, and against the trapped population at large. In his version Titus was only the instrument God used to get His way and the main culprits were the Jewish rebels themselves who invoked His wrath by their own sins.
I will go through the whole work once more like I already had planned to do, taking large steps this time as in some editions all chapters have an abstract summary of their content, to make sure that I will file all relevant content per your latest recommendations but nothing more than that.
Laura said:Palinurus, regarding Josephus, it really sounds like he's a dud. I've got one entry from him that I put in today and it's in 71 AD - Fall of Jerusalem. Open it and read and the related entry that is noted. Notice that Titus refused to take credit for the Fall of Jerusalem. Well, how interesting is that? Maybe he was telling the truth: he didn't do it, the "Wrath of God" did.
Anyway, if there is anything big or important in Josephus, note it, but otherwise, just stick to any environmental mentions.
Thank you for your prompt reaction, Laura.
I've read your new entry and noticed it corresponds fairly well with the version wikipedia gives of those events. However, I have a problem with you dating it in 71 AD, as the consensus seems to be that this happened in 70 AD. See this table, for instance. Maybe you could reconsider the date; I didn't edit anything there for now.
That Titus refused credit, is also mentioned by Josephus but in less outright clarity than your source has. Josephus's emphasis is on the fact that Titus specifically and repeatedly ordered the temple to be spared but that his soldiers in the heat of battle ignored those commands, so that Titus didn't deserve any personal blame for its destruction. According to Josephus it has to be considered as an act of God in retaliation for the evil deeds of the Jewish occupying factions against each other, against the holiness of the temple, and against the trapped population at large. In his version Titus was only the instrument God used to get His way and the main culprits were the Jewish rebels themselves who invoked His wrath by their own sins.
I will go through the whole work once more like I already had planned to do, taking large steps this time as in some editions all chapters have an abstract summary of their content, to make sure that I will file all relevant content per your latest recommendations but nothing more than that.