Belief that the covenant god would step into history and act to vindicate himself and his people is not necessarily the most efficient basis on which to plan a military uprising. It led to a fissiparous situation in which different factions, each believing that they were the true chosen warriors, fought against each other with as much or more violence as against the Romans.48 As more than one would-be prophet had predicted, the Romans were bound to be the eventual winners. The Temple was burned, and the city taken, in AD 70; Masada followed in 74.
