Obsidio Lyddae
About
Roman commanders Lusius Quietus and Marcius Turbo cornered a Jewish rebel force under Julian and Pappus inside Lydda during the empire-wide Kitos War, then stormed the town and crucified many of its defenders. Rabbi Gamaliel II was reportedly trapped inside during the siege. It was one of the closing engagements of the diaspora-wide Jewish revolt that broke out while Trajan was fighting Parthia. The uprising was fully crushed within months, right as Trajan himself lay dying.
What happened here
A Roman army fights the way it camps: in lines, by drill, on ground chosen if possible. The legions form up in cohorts with gaps that let ranks rotate, throw a volley of heavy javelins at close range, and then close with the short sword, pushing behind the shield. Auxiliaries hold the flanks and do most of the cavalry work and most of the skirmishing. Battles are short and decided by whether one line breaks, and the killing happens in the pursuit rather than the fighting. The camp is dug and palisaded every night regardless. Afterwards the dead are stripped and the field is looted for days; the ground is remembered locally long after the campaign is a paragraph in someone's history.
Sources
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →