Before Jerusalem Fell

314 BEFORE JERUSALEM FELL
this is the interpretation: in the midst of the time of that kingdom
great struggles shall arise, and it shall be in danger of falling; nevertheless
it shall not fall then, but shall regain its former power.”
Josephus, a Jew from the province that included Israel, agrees that
during this time Rome was brought near to utter “ruin.”5 2
He notes
that “about this time it was that heavy calamities came about Rome
on all sides.”5 3
The reports of the destruction and rapine were so
horrible that it is reported of General Vespasian: “And as this sorrow
of his was violent, he was not able to support the torments he was
under, nor to apply himself further in other wars when his native
country was laid waste.”5 4
Josephus writes elsewhere that “the Roman
government [was] in a great internal disorder, by the continual
changes of its rulers, and [the Germans] understood that every part
of the habitable earth under them was in an unsettled and tottering
condition. ”5 5
Men everywhere understood that “the state of the
Remans was so ill.”5G
But what eventually occurred at the end of these “death throes”?
The rest of Suetonius’s quotation begun above informs us that “the
empire, which for a long time had been unsettled and, as it were,
drifting through the usurpation and violent death of three emperors,
was at last taken in and given stability by the Flavian family.”5 7
Josephus concurs with this view of things when he writes: “So upon
this confirmation of Vespasian’s entire government, which was now
settled, and upon tfu unexpected deliverance of the public affairs of t/u
Remans j$-om ruin, Vespasian turned his thoughts to what remained
unsubdued in Judea. “5 8
Thus, after a time of grievous Civil War, the
Empire was revived by the ascending of Vespasian to the purple.
Through the death of the last Emperor from the original imperial
Julian family, namely Nero, it seemed as though the old imperial
power had received its death-blow. In the times of the so-called
Interregnum new Emperors were constantly trying to secure the
throne, but not one could secure a permanent or generally recognized
52. Josephus, Wan 4:11:5.
53. Zbid., 410:1.
54. Ibid., 4102.
55. Ibid. 7:42.
56. Ibid. 7:42
57. l@aiUn 1:1.
58. Wars 411:5. Emphasis mine.