Bar Kokhba Revolt

The revolt broke out in 132. According to Cassius Dio, it was provoked by Hadrian’s decision, taken during his visit to Judaea in 129–130, to refound Jerusalem as the Roman colony of Aelia Capitolina, with a temple of Jupiter on the site of the Temple. Eusebius presents the colony as a punishment imposed after the war, but coins of Aelia Capitolina found in hoards from the rebels’ refuge caves support Dio’s order of events. A ban on circumcision reported by the Historia Augusta may also have played a part, though whether it preceded the war is debated. The rebels waited until Hadrian had left the region, then struck from strongholds and underground hideouts prepared in advance. Their leader styled himself nasi (prince) of Israel, and Rabbi Akiva is said to have recognised him as the Messiah. The rebel state minted coins with slogans such as “Year One of the Redemption of Israel” and “For the Freedom of Jerusalem”, and Bar Kokhba’s letters to his subordinates have been found in caves of the Judaean Desert.

The governor, Quintus Tineius Rufus, could not contain the revolt, and Hadrian himself spent some time with the army. Sextus Julius Severus, summoned from Britain, avoided pitched battles and wore the rebels down by cutting off small groups and starving out their positions. The last stronghold, Betar, south-west of Jerusalem, fell in the summer of 135 — by Jewish tradition on the Ninth of Av — and Bar Kokhba was killed; the last pockets of resistance were crushed in 136. Dio claims that 50 fortresses and 985 villages were razed and 580,000 men killed in battle, not counting those who died of hunger and disease — figures that some historians think inflated, while others find them consistent with the archaeological evidence of depopulation. Roman losses, too, were so heavy that Hadrian left out the customary assurance that he and the legions were well from his letter to the Senate.

Judaea was renamed Syria Palaestina and Jews were excluded from Jerusalem and its surroundings; the centre of Jewish life moved to Galilee, and the diaspora grew in importance. Rabbi Akiva was executed by the Romans.