Did Josephus Really Claim More Than One Million People Died During the Siege?
Primary: Josephus, The Jewish War 6.9.3 ยท Siege: 70 CE
What the ancient record says
Josephus reports 1,100,000 dead during the siege, saying many were not permanent residents but had come for the festival period and became trapped when the siege closed. Evidence discipline: we can say Josephus reports 1.1 million; we cannot say modern research independently proved exactly 1.1 million, different claims.
His population/casualty numbers are debated; ancient historians sometimes reported enormous figures, and reconstructing first-century Yahrushalam's population is difficult, so the number stays attributed to Josephus. Questioning the number does not mean the destruction was not catastrophic (famine, disease, combat, execution, mass captivity, destruction, deaths after capture).
He supports the large festival population by referring to an earlier count based on Pasakh sacrifices. Card handling: never "1.1 million were definitely killed", instead "Josephus reports 1.1 million deaths."
Read it for yourself. Josephus, The Jewish War 6.9.3 (also 97,000 captives).
Evidence strength: Directly attested as Josephus's reported number. Strong: he reports 1.1 million and catastrophic mortality. Unknown: precise actual total. Do not convert his estimate into an independently verified census.