This is CBSI on the world.

I'm John Batchel with Professor Barry Strauss, Emeritus Cornell University, and a senior fellow

at the Hoover Institution on the campus of Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.

We're discussing his new book, Jews versus Rome,

and we're at the moment of the siege of Jerusalem

by the Roman legions, who are extremely good in the open field

and not so bad at siege tactics as well, conquering sieges.

They've got artillery, they've got discipline, they've got food, they've got water, and they're led by a man, though 30 years old, as a father who's the emperor of Rome at that moment. So he has all the authority he needs.

Inside Jerusalem, however, Professor makes it very clear that the Jews defending Jerusalem do not have one leader,

and therein lies a problem.

I have John, I have Simon, and I have Eliaser.

What do they represent, Barry?

Thank you.

Very good introduction, John.

And what they represent, Elazar represents the the priestly

rebels these are the the zealots as we call them the enthusiasts and they tend to be relatively

moderate as rebels go John and Simon are both freelancers, as it were. John is a wealthy man who comes

from a town all the way in the north. It's near Israel, modern Israel's border with Lebanon.

And Simon comes from a family of converts, arguably comes from a town and what is now Jordan, although there's some question about that.

And he represents, he's a champion of the poor, of the outcasts, of the oppressed, even of slaves.

So he represents the possibility of a social revolution as well as a political

revolution against Rome. And these three factions are fighting for control of the Holy City. And

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