The Great Revolt against Rome
The refusal to offer a sacrifice for the emperor becomes a war; after early victories the rebels turn on each other and burn their own supplies.
The revolt began when the priest Elazar ben Chananya stopped the daily offering for the emperor's welfare — a formal break with Rome. The procurator Florus had already driven the city to fury by plundering the Temple treasury. In the summer of 3826 the Roman garrison in Jerusalem was killed; Cestius Gallus, governor of Syria, advanced on the city but was routed on the descent from Beth Horon, losing a legion.
Rome answered in earnest. Vespasian began methodically in the north with three legions. Galilee fell within a year; its commander Yosef ben Mattityahu surrendered and became the historian Josephus, our chief external source for the war.
Worse than the Romans was the war within. Three factions faced each other in besieged Jerusalem: the Zealots under Elazar, the men of Yochanan of Gush Halav, and the force of Shimon bar Giora. They fought in the streets, and to force one another into battle the zealots burned the city's granaries, which held supplies for years of siege. The Talmud states it plainly: there was food enough for a long time, but the biryonim, the men of violence, burned it all 'so that the people would have to fight.' Famine set in. Vespasian was proclaimed emperor and left for Rome, handing the war to his son Titus.