LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Vespasian: Cities
built 628 days ago
"Under the reign of Vespasian, Rome declared war against the Jews because of their repeated revolts, and General Titus besieged the city of Jerusalem 70 A.D. It is said that eleven hundred thousand [i.e. one million, one hundred thousand] Jews perished in the six month siege, but the church there escaped the horrors of the siege by following the instruction of Christ in Matthew 24, and fleeing to the mountains beyond the Jordan. This timely retreat was made to the small town of Pella." (Hugh Smith's History)
Source:
Shrewdly, Vespasian begins his campaign in the north. Any city or town that resists his advance is utterly destroyed, its population slaughtered or taken into slavery, the women raped, property pillaged. Then, the surrounding area is denuded of trees and the fields strewn with salt to ensure that nothing would grow there again.
Source:
By raising taxes and reclaiming public land, Vespasian was able to fill the city’s vaults with cold, hard, cash. He used some of this money on a massive building program, which included temples, a theater and early work on what would become the Colosseum.
Source:
Vespasian could be liberal to impoverished Senators and equestrians and to cities and towns desolated by natural calamity. He was especially generous to men of letters and rhetors, several of whom he pensioned with salaries of as much as 1,000 gold pieces a year. Quintilian is said to have been the first public teacher who enjoyed this imperial favor.
Source:
Having deserted to Agrippa II, he is accused of setting fire to Greek cities and Vespasian orders him executed; Agrippa does not carry out the order. Twenty years later, Justus writes his own version of the war that is highly critical of Josephus.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Cities