
Cestius Gallus (died 67 AD) was Suffect consul of the Roman Empire in 42 AD and Legate of Syria from 63 to 65 AD. He died shortly after his humiliating defeat at the Battle of Beth Horon in 66 AD during the First Jewish-Roman War.
Biography[]
Cestius Gallus was the son of Gaius Cestius Gallus, and he followed in his father's footsteps by serving as a (suffect) Consul of the Roman Empire in 42 AD. He went on to serve as legate of Roman Syria from 63 to 65 AD, and, in September of 66 AD, he marched into Iudaea with over 30,000 troops, attempting to restore order in Iudaea at the outset of the First Jewish-Roman War. His army failed in its siege of Jerusalem due to a failure to capture Temple Mount, and his army was annihilated by the Jewish rebels at the Battle of Beth Horon, during which Legio XII Fulminata was destroyed and its siege weapons and aquila standards captured. Shortly after his return to Syria in 67 AD, he died, and Licinius Mucianus replaced him as Governor of Syria.