…Giscala, the last town in Galilee not yet conquered.

Outside the walls of the city, Titus calls on the defenders to surrender.

John of Giscala prevails upon Titus not to enter the city that day, as it was Sabbath, "not so much out of regard to the seventh day as to his own preservation."

John flees to Jerusalem that night.

Zealot control of Jerusalem is confined to the inner court of the city and the Temple itself.

Outnumbered and isolated by Ananus' troops surrounding the Temple, Eleazar’s control of the Temple is seriously threatened from the winter of 67 to the spring of 68.

When John of Giscala enters Jerusalem, there is growing unrest.

Ananus, having incited the people to rise up against the Zealots, who are robbing the people and using the Temple of Jerusalem as their base of operations, begins to recruit for armed conflict.

The Zealots, learning of this, sally forth from the Temple quarter, attacking all in their way.

Ananus quickly organizes the people against them.

The skirmish begins with the belligerents throwing rocks at one another, then javelins, then finally hand-to-hand combat with swords ensues.

Eventually the Zealots retreat to the inner court of the Temple, and six thousand of Ananus’s men hold the first (outer) court.

According to Josephus, John of Giscala, who secretly seeks to rule Jerusalem, had cultivated a friendship with Ananus.

Suspected of being a spy, John is made to swear an "oath of goodwill" to Ananus and the people, after which Ananus sends John into the inner court, to speak with the Zealots on his behalf.

John desperately needed Eleazar's funds to supply his followers, and Eleazar requires the protection of John's large entourage to fend off Ananus.

John immediately turns coat, "as if his oath had been made to the zealots," telling them that they are in imminent danger, and cannot survive a siege.

He tells them that they have two options: 1) to surrender, in which case they would either face execution, vigilantism, or retribution for the "desperate things they had done"; or 2) to ask for outside assistance.

John tells the Zealots that Ananus had sent ambassadors to Vespasian to ask him to come take the city.

This in fact was not true, but persuades them that they cannot endure a siege without help.

The messengers manage to sneak out of the Temple and successfully deliver their message to the rulers of the Idumeans, who are greatly alarmed, and quickly raise an army of twenty thousand to march on Jerusalem, "in order to maintain the liberty of their metropolis."

Upon receiving word that twenty thousand Idumeans are marching on Jerusalem, ben Hanan orders the gates shut against them, and the walls guarded.

Jesus, one of the elder high priests, makes a speech from the walls, denouncing the Zealots as robbers and telling the Idumeans to throw down their arms.

Simon, son of Cathlas, one of the Idumean commanders, quiets the tumult of his own men and answers: "I can no longer wonder that the patrons of liberty are under custody in the temple, since there are those that shut the gates of our common city to their own nation, and at the same time are prepared to admit the Romans into it; nay, perhaps are disposed to crown the gates with garlands at their coming, while they speak to the Idumeans from their own towers, and enjoin them to throw down their arms which they have taken up for the preservation of its liberty...." (Josephus; The Jewish War, Book IV).

That night a thunderstorm blows over Jerusalem, and the Zealots sneak from the Temple to the gates, and cut the bars of the gates with saws, the sound masked by the sound of the wind and thunder.

They open the gates of Jerusalem to the Idumeans, who all upon the guards and make their way to the Temple.

They slaughter Ananus' forces there, killing him as well.

After freeing the Zealots from the Temple, they massacre the common people.

Eventually, after learning that Vespasian had never been contacted by Ananus, the Idumeans repent and leave the city.

Simon's success had meanwhile begun worrying the Zealots in Jerusalem.

Since they do not dare fight in open battle, they lay an ambush, capturing his wife and some of her entourage.

They expect Simon to lay down his weapons in exchange for her freedom.

Simon grows very angry, however, goes to Jerusalem and takes everybody leaving the city captive.

Some he tortures, some he kills; he cut off the hands of others, sending them back into the city with the message that he will do likewise to all Jerusalem if his wife is not released.

This frightens the Zealots so immensely that they eventually let her go.

Jerusalem has had unstable leadership from 68 to 69 under the alliance between Simon ben Eleazar and his Zealots, John of Giscala, and the Idumeans.

Eleazar and John, in a misguided attempt to unite the city under their complete control exploit their power and slaughter the remnants of Ananus' moderate party in Jerusalem.

John during this period has distanced himself from Eleazar and the Zealots in order to avoid association with their tyrannical behavior and claim sole leadership.

As a result of this despotic turn and their insufficient representation in the government, many Idumeans defect to a violent extremist group outside the city walls known as the Sicarii, led by Simon ben Gioras.

The advancing Roman army in April 69 had forced Simon to retreat to Jerusalem, where he has camped outside the city walls and once again begun harassing people.

Within Jerusalem, John of Giscala has set himself up as a despotic ruler after overthrowing lawful authority in the Zealot Temple Siege.

The Jerusalem authorities in order to get rid of him decide to ask Simon to enter the city and drive John away. 

Simon, with the support of most Idumeans, is admitted, cclaimed by the people as their savior and guardian.

With fifteen thousand soldiers at hand Simon soon controls the whole upper city and some of the lower city.

John holds parts of the lower city and the temple's outer court with six thousand men and a third splinter group of twenty-four hundred Zealots, led by Eleazar ben Simon, controls the temple's inner court.

Just as Ananus' forces had surrounded him, Eleazar finds himself in a similar situation of helplessness.

This year is marked by bitter civil war between the three factions under Simon, John, and Eleazar.

The three factions fight vigorously over the control of Jerusalem, always trying to destroy each others grain stores to starve each other into submission.

According to Tacitus, "there were three generals and three armies, and between these three there was constant fighting, treachery, and arson" (Histories 5.12.3).

This internal fighting will later prove disastrous: not only is this a sabbatical year (with less grain available), but the city is under siege by the time the harvest begins.

The leaders of the rebellion, Simon in particular, are nevertheless regarded with reverence and awe.

Coins are minted by his authority declaring the redemption of Zion.

The Zealots, despite early successes in repelling the Roman sieges, have fought among themselves, lacking proper leadership, discipline, training, and preparation for the battles that were to follow.

After three years of bitter fighting, the Roman forces, under the command of Vespasian's son Titus, have reduced Judaea in three campaigns.

Days prior to the siege of Jerusalem, Eleazar ben Simon is betrayed by John of Giscala and killed.

According to Josephus, John had sent a party to the Zealot stronghold in the Temple to offer a sacrifice before the coming festival of Passover, yet when Eleazar and his Zealots opened the gates to permit entry, John's forces slaughtered Eleazar and his officials in order to regain the support of the Zealots.

Shortly after Eleazar's death in the summer of 70, Titus leads the final assault and siege of Jerusalem, the rebel’s capital city, just before the beginning of Passover, surrounding the city with three legions (V Macedonica, XII Fulminata, XV Apollinaris) on the western side and a fourth (X Fretensis) on the Mount of Olives to the east.

He puts pressure on the food and water supplies of the inhabitants by allowing pilgrims to enter the city to celebrate Passover, and then refusing to allow them to go out.

After Jewish sallies kill a number of Roman soldiers, Titus sends Josephus to negotiate with the defenders; this ends with Jews wounding the negotiator with an arrow, and another sally is launched shortly after.

Titus is nearly captured during this sudden attack, but escapes.

The siege of Jerusalem had begun early in the war, but has turned into a stalemate.

Unable to breach the city's defenses, the Roman armies have established a permanent camp just outside the city, digging a trench around the circumference of its walls and building a wall as high as the city walls themselves around Jerusalem.

Anyone caught in the trench attempting to flee the city is captured, crucified, and placed in lines on top of the dirt wall facing into Jerusalem, with as many as five hundred crucifixions occurring in a day.

Titus quickly takes down the first and second wall, but then meets fierce resistance as the factions within Jerusalem realize the necessity of joining forces.

However, Simon and John both uphold their reigns of terror over the citizens, causing many to flee to the Romans.

To counteract these desertions, Simons put every potential betrayer, including some of his previous friends, to death.

Tacitus, a historian of the time, notes that those who were besieged in Jerusalem amounted to no fewer than six hundred thousand, that men and women alike and every age engaged in armed resistance, everyone who could pick up a weapon did, both sexes showed equal determination, preferring death to a life that involved expulsion from their country.

In mid-May, Titus sets to destroying the newly built Third Wall with a ram, breaching it as well as the Second Wall, and turning his attention to the Fortress of Antonia just north of the Temple Mount.

The Romans are then drawn into street fighting with the Zealots, who are then ordered to retreat to the temple to avoid heavy losses.