Gaius Cestius Gallus was the son of a consul

Consul

Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Empire. The title was also used in other city states and also revived in modern states, notably in the First French Republic...

 in ancient Rome

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 and himself a suffect consul in 42.

He was legate

Legatus

A legatus was a general in the Roman army, equivalent to a modern general officer. Being of senatorial rank, his immediate superior was the dux, and he outranked all military tribunes...

 of Syria

Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

 from 63 or 65. He marched into Judea

Judea

Judea or Judæa was the name of the mountainous southern part of the historic Land of Israel from the 8th century BCE to the 2nd century CE, when Roman Judea was renamed Syria Palaestina following the Jewish Bar Kokhba revolt.-Etymology:The...

 in 66 in an attempt to restore calm at the outset of the Great Jewish Revolt. He succeeded in conquering Beit She'arim

Beit She'arim National Park

Beit She'arim , also known as Beth She'arim or Besara , literally The Strangers House, is the archeological site of a Jewish town and a large number of ancient rock-cut Jewish tombs...

 "the new city" also called Bezetha, in the Jezreel Valley, seat of the Great Sanhedrin

Sanhedrin

The Sanhedrin was an assembly of twenty-three judges appointed in every city in the Biblical Land of Israel.The Great Sanhedrin was the supreme court of ancient Israel made of 71 members...

 (Jewish supreme religious court) at the time, but was unable to take The Temple Mount.

During his withdrawal to the coast his army was ambushed near Beth Horon

Battle of Beth Horon (66)

The Battle of Beth Horon was a battle fought in 66 AD between the Roman army and Jewish rebel forces in the First Jewish-Roman War. The Battle of Beth Horon was the worst defeat the Romans suffered at the hands of rebels.-Background:...

, and only succeeded in making good his escape to Antioch

Antioch

Antioch on the Orontes was an ancient city on the eastern side of the Orontes River. It is near the modern city of Antakya, Turkey.Founded near the end of the 4th century BC by Seleucus I Nicator, one of Alexander the Great's generals, Antioch eventually rivaled Alexandria as the chief city of the...

 by sacrificing the greater part of his army and a large amount of war materiel.

Soon after his return Gallus died (before the spring of 67), and was succeeded in the governorship by Licinius Mucianus. Emperor Nero

Nero

Nero , was Roman Emperor from 54 to 68, and the last in the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero was adopted by his great-uncle Claudius to become his heir and successor, and succeeded to the throne in 54 following Claudius' death....

 appointed General Vespasian

Vespasian

Vespasian , was Roman Emperor from 69 AD to 79 AD. Vespasian was the founder of the Flavian dynasty, which ruled the Empire for a quarter century. Vespasian was descended from a family of equestrians, who rose into the senatorial rank under the Emperors of the Julio-Claudian dynasty...

, the future Emperor, instead to crush the rebellion.

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