Nonviolent/Passive Resistance #101
Pilate instructs his centurions to carry their official Roman ensigns (regimental battle standards bearing the Emperor’s image) into Jerusalem under cover of darkness and deliver them to Antonia Fortress, contiguous to the Temple Complex.
The Jews are furious, as it smacks of paganism at the Temple complex.
Angry Jews from Jerusalem and the countryside assemble in Jerusalem and then march in protest 90+ miles to Pilate’s seaside palace in Caesarea Maritima on the Mediterranean coast in protest.
Pilate refuses to budge. The regimental ensigns are to remain on the Temple Mount.
The protesters then bring the city center of Caesarea to a halt by staging a 5–day nonviolent sit–down strike – first opposite Pilate’s palace.
Pilate still does not budge.
Then, after 5 full days, they assemble peacefully in the main public Square (the agora) to attempt to present a petition to Pilate.
Pilate refuses to accept the petition.
But, Pilate does mass columns of centurions, and threatens to “slice the Jews into pieces” if they do not return home immediately to Jerusalem.
The protesters do not budge.
Pilate orders his troops to draw their swords.
The Jews lie down, face up, their throats exposed.
Silence.
The Jewish protest leaders then announce to the Romans that all the protesters are fully prepared to die for their religious honor.
Pilate pauses.
–then backs down—and advises that the offending ensigns on the Temple Mount will, indeed, be removed from Jerusalem forthwith.
The 33 CE the Jewish protest leaders understood that, in principle, Rome wanted no bloodshed of non–threatening protesters, that Rome would tend to back down every time, as long as Roman honor was not challenged, no violence threatened or enacted, and no provocations offered.
In retrospect and hindsight, clearly this was the optimal route to “force Rome’s hand,” but the approach required thorough discipline and very carefully chosen encounters—with fully committed, disciplined and motivated protesters prepared to die.
So to recapitulate on the tactical chessboard:
If employed adroitly, moral authority + passive resistance + willingness to die + tight discipline, could trump Roman military might (peacefully).
Mohandas Gandhi and the legendary philosophy Satyagraha—resistance to tyranny through passive resistance civil disobedience—attributed to him in the mid–twentieth century had a clear predecessor 1,833 years earlier.
The astute First Century Jewish mastermind behind the “Caesarea Satyagraha,” whoever he/she was, understood full well that the Romans wanted total local “control” but that if one yielded this to them, they would be vulnerable to disciplined, nonviolent moral protest.
What the Romans truly feared most of all, was an out–of–control nationwide conflagration. Rome did not want any local “matchstick” to light up any out of control “bonfire.”