How a Corrupt Governor Pushed His People to the Edge

Apologies for the brief hiatus in posting, was off climbing mountains.

It’s the spring of 66AD, what a wonderful time to be alive, especially if you’re Gessius Florus, the governor of Judea. Except for one small issue – the Jewish population is getting fed up with all the avarice and plundering. They’re starting to complain. During Passover of that year Cestius Gallus, the governor of Syria and Florus’ boss, visits Jerusalem and the Jews protest against Florus. That’s not good. Because, you see, it’s true that the governor is allowed to squeeze his province but if it gets too much the locals can denounce the governor to the authorities. Usually the odds are stacked against them but if they manage to make their case, well, let’s just say it could end badly. And Florus did rather like his head attached to his body.

But there’s a way out. If the Jews are shown to be rebellious and ungrateful Florus will be off the hook, and what better way to demonstrate rebelliousness than by having an actual rebellion?

There’s only one problem to solve – not enough idiots and crazies in the local population. Who’d want to start a revolt against Rome with no army or allies? So what to do? Well, in any population there’s bound to be a fair number of stupid people. After all, IQ is normally distributed and so about half the population will have below average IQ, some will even be outright idiots. A normal society keeps the lid on the stupid box screwed on tight, because no one wants to know what happens when they break out. Occasionally, however, someone comes along and for various reasons, perhaps he wants to hide the extent of his corruption, loosens the screws. And that was Florus’ plan.

In the next post, a pigeon sets off a riot and Florus works on his crucifixion skills.

A scene from a movie which was heavily influenced by the Jewish Revolt.