Rebels: Jews vs. Rome

Join the School of Civic Leadership as Dr. Barry Strauss discusses his recent book, Jews vs. Rome: Two Centuries of Rebellion Against the World’s Mightiest Empire. The two centuries between 63 BCE and 136 CE were among the most consequential in the history of the West, witnessing the birth of both Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism as well as the emergence of the Roman Empire from the ruins of the Republic. For the Jewish people, they were also a period of repeated rebellion against Rome, making the Jews Rome’s most rebellious subjects. Yet some Jews remained loyal to Rome. Others sought help from what today might seem like an unlikely source: an ancient Iranian empire, Parthia. In Jews vs. Rome, Strauss recounts this fascinating history of resilience and resistance and the remarkable people who made it. 

Barry Strauss is the Corliss Page Dean Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University as well as the Bryce and Edith M. Bowmar Professor in Humanistic Studies Emeritus at Cornell University, where he is the former Chair of the Department of History as well as Professor of History and Classics. A classicist as well as military and naval historian and consultant, Strauss is a recognized authority on leadership and the lessons that can be learned from the experiences of the greatest political and military leaders of the ancient world, among them, Caesar, Hannibal, and Alexander. He holds a Ph.D. from Yale and a B.A. from Cornell.