(photo credit: Yoli Schwartz / Israel Antiquities Authority)
By Aaron Reich - August 7, 2022
The positions of the Roman army's ballistae used in their attack on Jerusalem may have been found thanks to archaeological evidence and calculations made by the Israel Antiquities Authority.
The findings come on Tisha Be'av, the Jewish fast day that mourns, among other things, the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans during this invasion.
Background: When Romans took Jerusalem
The Roman Empire was the pinnacle superpower of the ancient world and firmly dominated the entirety of the Mediterranean Sea.
Its army, too, was the powerhouse of the era, enforcing the empire's will on its conquered and subjugated lands.
The imperial legions were vast, strong in number with a vast number of flexible tactics and formations at their disposal, along with their signature innovations and weaponry, such as the ballista.
It was with this might that the Romans, in an army led by Pompey the Great, would ultimately conquer Judea, ruled at the time by the Hasmonean Kingdom, in 63 BCE — which was technically before the birth of the empire and was actually in the tail-end of the Roman Republic.
Read More: Jerusalem Post