What Did Rome Do with the People It Captured After Yahrushalam Fell?
Primary: Josephus, The Jewish War 6.8–9 · Date: 70 CE
What the ancient record says
"Captives" reduced to one word hides the reality. Per Josephus, after capture the survivors were separated: some killed; some young men selected for the Roman triumph; many over seventeen chained and sent to the Egyptian mines; others sent throughout the provinces to die in theaters by the sword and by wild beasts; those under seventeen sold as slaves.
"Wild beasts" is Josephus's own wording (6.9.2), not modern drama. Children sold; at one point so many were sold with so few buyers that prices became extremely low.
He reports 97,000 captives for the whole war (attributed to him, not an independent census). People died even after capture: 11,000 died from lack of food while Fronto determined the captives' fates (some denied food by hostile guards, some refused food, shortages from the number of prisoners), 11,000 is Josephus's reported figure.
Conquest could mean: chains, mines, slave markets, Roman triumphs, arenas, swords, wild animals, starvation.
Read it for yourself. Josephus, The Jewish War 6.8; 6.9.2–3.
Evidence strength: Very strong primary ancient testimony, Josephus lived through the period with direct connections; that makes him exceptionally important, not automatically infallible on every number.