Jews VS. Rome
Barry Strauss
August 19, 2025, Simon and Schuster
384 pages
I grew up a religious Jew, including observing all the fasts related to the destruction of the Temple. I thought I had a firm grasp on the Jewish struggle with Rome and resulting exile. I was wrong. Partially, this is because as a girl I was not allowed to study Talmud in which many of these stories are contained, and partially it reflects the way oral history can lead to fragmentary transmission of knowledge. I knew a lot of the stories contained in Barry Staruss’s Jews Vs. Rome. What bowled me over was just how long everything took. In my head this was matter of maybe 10-50 years. Luckily, this information is in the subtitle – “two centuries of rebellion against the world’s mightiest empire” – and thus I was convinced to pick up the books and increase my knowledge.
Jews vs. Rome helpfully divides up the various skirmishes into three main rebellions, and framing them in this context makes it easier to remember what happened when. It also explains how this could have possibly taken so long. Along the way Strauss provides bits and pieces of global context that seek to explain why the Jews thought they stood a chance in the first place and bothered rebelling despite the heavy personal cost. I knew the religious religious explanation for this phenomenon, but then, as now, not all Jews were religious. So how could these rebellions go on and on and on? Did not the Jews realize it was futile? Indeed some Jews did not want to risk it and were on the side of Rome! Side note, lots of people are going to quibble over whether Herod was Jewish or not. I had some very conflicting feelings about the guy myself regardless of how we view his ancestry.
While I could go on about the topic of the various Jewish factions for some time, and have already identified further reading on the topic, I’ll leave it in favor of discussing my favorite portion of this book – The role of the Parthian Empire! You don’t hear about the Parthians as much as you do Rome and Greece and other ancient empires, but Rome clearly thought they were a force to be reckoned with and Strauss lays out several compelling reasons for why their presence could have goaded Rome’s Jews into rebellion. They may even have directly encouraged rebellion, and there is an entire conversion story relating to some Parthian nobles that is fascinating. Furthermore, it highlights something about Jews that still frightens leaders today as it frightened the ancient Pharaoh of Egypt. Jewish identity is not tied down neatly within the borders of any one map. It comes from within and our communities have loyalties to each other that cross state, country, and even empire lines. Other religions have managed this as well, but the Jews provide a particular striking example, and it made Rome fear them.
Less persuasive to me was Strauss’s efforts to rehabilitate the reputation of the historian Josephus. Possibly this is due to generations of Jews and Gentiles alike loathing the man as a traitor and a coward, but given my willingness to reconsider Herod, I think not. It was a valiant effort to contextualize a very complicated man, but anyone who stands outside the siege and sack of Jerusalem praising the Romans to the high heavens while his own wife is inside is just not salvageable to me. I understand why Josephus saved his own skin, but I wish he’d made different choices. I also wish we had a less biased and confusing source for much of this history. Luckily, today’s historians do not believe in embellishments and straight up lying the way the ones in Roman times did. Strauss spends a great deal of time unraveling the tall tales of Josephus and his fellow historians and parsing what might be true.
The story of two hundred years of subjugation and eventual exile due to continued demands for self rule and freedom is essential reading for people who seem to think all Jews originated in New Jersey of Eastern Europe. It is also informative for people who want to know about ancient siege warfare and siege mentality. Finally, Jews Vs. Rome gives a glimpse into a side of Rome that people tend to gloss over in their desire to speak of its advances. Particularly informative was the definition of Roman peace and how it differs from what a modern day person might mean when they use the term ‘peace.’ In fact, this “peace” is one of the first extremely well documented cases of Jews being used as a scapegoat for a leader who needs to shore up his own political power by enslaving and subjugating a minority as a show for citizens who can then think better of themselves in comparison to this Jewish “other.”
Out of that horrid stew comes Berenice and Titus’s doomed love story. It completely shocked me, and I’m sad I didn’t know it until now. I hated her. I hated him more. And yet I was secretly rooting for them to make it even though I knew what was coming, because in Berenice I saw the story of every attractive minority that is ultimately chewed up and spit out of the machine that seeks to convert and tame them for its own purposes even as it secretly reviles them. At least Berenice held the reigns of control for some time before she was sent packing. It’s more than many get.
Jews Vs. Rome is easy enough for the lay reader to read for pleasure. Strauss is clearly gifted in the descriptions of ancient battle techniques and political intrigue. The only points of confusion for me were the sheer number of people named Eleazer, Simon, Augustus or Titus. We can hardly blame the author for ancient naming conventions. Instead we can thank him for helping guide us through it all.