Did a Roman Soldier Publicly Expose Himself Toward the People During Pasakh and Help Trigger a Deadly Disaster?
Period: administration of Cumanus (~50 CE) · Primary: Josephus, The Jewish War 2.12 and Antiquities 20.5
What the ancient record says
Before the great war of 66–70 CE, a huge festival crowd gathered at Yahrushalam; Roman soldiers were stationed around the sanctuary area. One soldier committed an obscene act.
Josephus preserves it twice: Antiquities, the soldier lowered his clothing and exposed his private parts toward the crowd; The Jewish War, he turned his backside toward the people and made an obscene sound. The crowd became enraged, demanded punishment, some threw stones.
Cumanus called for additional armed soldiers; panic spread; people fled through crowded exits; a catastrophe followed, people crushed and trampled. Numbers: The Jewish War tradition reports more than 30,000; Antiquities has a different transmitted number in some editions, the website must not pretend to know the exact total.
Stronger is the event: Roman provocation, crowd outrage, military reinforcement, panic, mass crushing, deaths. Some accused Cumanus of instigating it, but Josephus does not establish that as proven, we cannot write "Cumanus ordered the soldier"; defensible: a soldier committed the act, some accused Cumanus, the accusation is not independently established.
Read it for yourself. Josephus, Antiquities 20.5; The Jewish War 2 (~223–227).
Evidence strength: Very strong for the incident (reported in two works). Uncertain: exact casualty total. Not proven: Cumanus ordered the provocation.