Revolt and Resistance in the Ancient Classical World and the Near East - In the Crucible of Empire
Revolt and Resistance in the Ancient Classical World and the Near East - In the Crucible of Empire
复制标题
古代古典世界和近东的反抗与抵抗——帝国的严酷考验
DOI:
10.1163/9789004330184_015
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发表时间:
2016
期刊:
影响因子:
--
通讯作者:
Rajak T
中科院分区:
文献类型:
--
作者:
Rajak T
It is no doubt a basic human instinct to reject domination or oppression and to seek freedom. But identifying a resistance movement, an uprising, a rebellion, a revolt, a fully-fledged war, or even revolution must be a matter of construction, dependent upon a particular interpretation by a diversity of participants (who cannot possibly agree), and still more upon subsequent discourse (no less divergent). Indeed, it would seem that resistance, like martyrdom, can be crystallized only in hindsight, as it is incorporated in various ways into coherent narratives and into collective memory. Such memories may well be central to a group’s identity, and often enough, they expand and enter the sphere of legend. 1In the case of the first Jewish revolt against Rome of 66–73/4 CE, we have received a narrative almost entirely controlled by one involved historian. Moreover, Josephus is a historian who gives short shrift to dissenting voices, even though all too well aware of them. But still, the revolt’s causes and triggers that he describes in his Jewish War, written during the decade following the disastrous failure, are far from clearcut and the entire causation is greatly overdetermined. A multiplicity of origins are signalled in the narrative. But where, within the story that Josephus crafts, should the actual beginnings of revolt be located? What was the Archduke Franz Ferdinand assassination moment of the Jewish revolt? Was it the Roman decision against the Jewish party in the Caesarea synagogue incident? Or was it Florus bringing troops into the city and his arrest of Jewish notables who had come to complain about that, and his ensuing ransacking of the city? Was it the decision to stop the sacrifices offered in the Jerusalem Temple on behalf of the Roman emperors? Was it the capture of the upper city by the proponents of revolt? Was it the burning of