Sicarii Revolt

If I was alive in first century CE Judea and I was born into the Jewish race I would have probably belonged to the Sicarii group. Sicarii was the name given to a group of Jewish zealots active in the time of the Roman rule of Palestine. In 66 C.E. a wide spread and violent conflict erupted in the land of Israel between the Jewish community and the Roman empire. The Roman empire controlled the region at the time and the Jews felt that they were being treated very unfairly by the Roman government. The Jewish people became tired of being politically oppressed, thus, resulting in the deterioration in relations among the Jewish community and the Roman government. In the years before the great revolt conflicts between the two sides slowly became worst. On one hand, the Jewish were trying to regain their political independence through a violent struggle against the Romans. On the other hand, Romans were enforcing their pagan lifestyle on the Jewish community. The opposition that led to the outbreak of the revolt occurred in Caesarea in the year 66, when the Roman governor of Judea, Gessius Florus, decided to strip the city’s Jews of their

The Sicarii conducted violent activities against the Roman forces stationed in Judea as well as the Jews that cooperated with those forces. The Sicarii had two main tactics to conduct their activities, the first was through political assassinations any Jewish leader that the Sicarii felt that cooperated with the Roman government would be killed. “The Sicarii usually attacked their targets in broad daylight in crowded places and during the festivals, when the masses gathered in Jerusalem.” (Perliger) The second strategy that was used by the Sicarii was kidnap. The Sicarii kidnapped members of the Roman government and kept them kidnapped until the Roman government freed captive members of the