The Sea of Galilee lies less than 50km (30 mi) east from the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, and drains south via the Jordan River to the Dead Sea, this whole valley system has long been a place of human habitation and agriculture. In the 1st century the area around the Sea of Galilee was famous for its olives and dates. Politically, this area has frequently been separated, with one region to the north containing the Sea of Galilee, and another to the south with the Dead Sea. This was the case during the Roman era, when the southern region was a Roman province, but the northern was nominally independent “client” kingdom of the Roman Empire.
A century prior, as a result of the Syrian War, the Selucids established a fortress on the hill called “Gamla” (“Camel”, because it looked like a camel’s hump), on the road between Damascus and Acre. It was later taken from the Greeks by Maccabean rebels and became part of the Hasmonean Kingdom. Even after Rome had subsumed their southern neighbor, the Galilean area was still under Hasmonean/Herodian rule. At the time of Vespasian’s march, Gamla was the most important fortification in the Golan.
Around 6 CE, the Galilieans had their own tea-party moment when a local Roman governor ordered a census, and a fellow from Gamla named Judas began an organized resistance to Roman rule, convincing folks to not let the Romans count them by setting aflame any farms or houses of those who did. This Judas of Gamla is said to have begun the Zealot movement, which opposed Roman authority and violently retaliated against those who disagreed.
Later, around 46 CE, a pair of fellows styled as ‘sons of Judas’, James and Simon, presumably had some mantle of leadership in the Zealot movement and led another revolt when their Herodian kingdom was replaced by Roman procurators. They were executed for their trouble by the procurator of Judea.
There was a fellow named Joshua who was called ‘son of Gamla’ by Josephus, and he had married the widow of a priestly family, and thus became High Priest of Jerusalem for a year, in 64CE. Although no longer a high priest at the time of the Great Revolt, he was still an important figure of leadership until his death at the hands of Idumean rebels at the Zealot siege of Jerusalem in 70CE. Remembering that the Hebrew name ‘Joshua’ becomes ‘Jesus’ via the Greek transliteration, this person is also known as ‘Jesus of Gamla’.
In 66 CE, there was a great revolt in Jerusalem and in many Judean cities over taxes and ham-handed attempts by various Roman emperors to enforce the imperial cult on the Jews. This was a matter of widespread and violent protests. Merchants who stood on the steps of the Temple and sold birds for purchase that would be sacrificed to the spirit of the emperor on the spot were frequently harassed unto death. Attempts to put statues of Imperial persons inside the Jerusalem temple were met with violent upheaval in which the Roman garrison in Jerusalem was entirely overcome and later a whole legion was ambushed and destroyed in one of the worst military disasters ever for Rome. One of the names for the rebellion leaders at the time was Jesus bin Gamla.
The Roman response was to bring in four legions and systematically establish Roman rule in every city in Judea or destroy them. They started in Gamla, where the Zealot defenders fought the Romans hand-to-hand, block by block, until all of the Zealots were killed, the city was destroyed, and no one has lived there since that day. Then they moved south to each city, either confirming Roman control, or laying siege.
As the legions were heading to Jerusalem, where all of the rebels and refugees had been congregating, Jesus bin Gamla was among the leaders who led a failed attempt to prevent an armed group of Idumeans from joining them. He was later killed by the Idumean general. After an 18-month siege, Jerusalem was sacked, the temple destroyed, the city burned, and the people sold into slavery.
By the time the Romans arrived at Masada four years later, the defenders simply committed mass suicide.
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