15. Goading the Authorities to Overreact…
The heavy-handed Roman response kept the embers of discontent smoldering. It also lit new flames of resentment, and provided a steady and steadily growing stream of new recruits and sympathizers from the families and friends of the Romans’ victims. The ancient Sicarii adopted a strategy common among modern terrorists, and engaged in sabotage to worsen the populace’s living conditions and keep them disgruntled. Faced with an occupier ready to resort to indiscriminate violence, the Sicarii committed atrocities that guaranteed massive Roman retaliation. By provoking the Romans into massive and indiscriminate retaliation, the Sicarii forced many Jewish fence sitters to pick from terrible choices. They could do nothing, and probably end up massacred or enslaved by angry Romans in no mood to distinguish “good” Jews from bad. Or they could join the resistance and hope to gain freedom, or at least the dignity of dying while fighting.
