Almost 1,955 years ago to the day, on the 23rd of Tishrei 67 CE, during the Feast of Tabernacles, the city of Gamla fell to the hands of the Roman army under Vespasian. Such a sentence, which can be found in many history books, does not do justice to the drama and tragedy that befell both sides of this siege. This was on the one hand not an ordinary battle in terms of the events which occurred, and on the other hand, a confrontation that was immensely important in quashing the First Jewish Revolt.

Before we delve further into the siege of Gamla, we must understand this revolt which started a year earlier as a mere protest against Roman rule in Jerusalem. The Jews eventually managed to drive off the small Roman garrison in the city. However, the Roman governor of Syria, Cestius Gallus, marched a huge army of 30,000 men to teach the disobedient people of Jerusalem that the Romans were their true and ultimate masters. For an unknown reason, a short time after starting a siege...