Rome and Jerusalem: The Clash of Ancient Civilizations

By Martin Goodman, Knopf, 624 pp., $35

by Rodney Anonymous

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Published: Dec 18, 2007

While Martin Goodman isn't quite as skilled a storyteller as he is a historian, Rome and Jerusalem still manages to provide valuable insight into the origins of both Christianity and anti-Semitism, as well as a fine overview of the Roman world in the first and second centuries CE (not to mention odd historical tidbits, like the fact that bored Roman Legionaries would occasionally break up the monotony by crucifying prisoners in "humorous" positions). And if Goodman's main theory, that a clash between Roman and Jewish civilization was not inevitable — despite their obvious differences, both societies had developed an amazingly close relationship as evidenced by the fact that the Jewish monarch Herod Agrippa I facilitated Claudius' ascension to the Imperial throne — and that the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE by Roman troops was an accident that was rebranded as an early form of "shock and awe" by Titus for political reasons is correct, the parallels to and the possible implications for the current U.S. presence in the Middle East are more than a little disturbing.

 

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