18. This Roman Soldier’s Idea of Funny Did Not Make Jerusalem’s Temple Goers Laugh
Understandably, the Jewish crowd below the flatulent Roman soldier did not take kindly to his blasphemous insult in the temple. Rioting erupted, and the Roman authorities rushed in soldiers to quell the disturbances. Things escalated, and by the time the dust settled, about 10,000 people lost their lives – all because of a chain of events that started with a fart. First-century AD Jewish historian Flavius Josephus left posterity an account of the lethal posterior emission. As he described how the disturbance began:
“The Jews’ ruin came on, for when the multitudes were come together to Jerusalem, to the feast of unleavened bread, and a Roman cohort stood over the cloisters of the temple (for they always were armed and kept guard at the festivals, to prevent any innovation which the multitude thus gathered together might take), one of the soldiers pulled back his garment, and cowering down after an indecent manner, turned his breech [rear end] to the Jews, and spoke such words as you might expect at such a posture“. As seen below, the results were disastrous.
