Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"The former Jewish kingdom of Judea had come under direct Roman rule in 4 B.C.E., but the Jews had too strong a religious identity to be assimilated into the Roman Empire. Rebellion broke out in 66 and, in 69, the newly installed Emperor Vespasian, who had defeated the rebels in northern Judea, sent his son Titus to suppress the revolt in Jerusalem. On September 7, 70 after nearly five months under a Roman siege, the city surrendered. . . . An estimated 97,000 Jews were taken captive, many of them used as slave labor in the building of the Colosseum in Rome." [1001 Days]