The Bar Kochba revolt marked
a time of high hopes followed by violent despair. The Jews were handed
expectations of a homeland and a Holy Temple, but in the end were persecuted
and sold into slavery. During the revolt itself, the Jews gained enormous
amounts of land, only to be pushed back and crushed in the final battle of
Bethar.
When Hadrian first became
the Roman emperor in 118 C.E., he was sympathetic to the Jews. He allowed
them to return to Jerusalem and granted permission for the rebuilding of
their Holy Temple. The Jews’ expectations rose as they made organizational
and financial preparations to rebuild the temple. Hadrian quickly went back
on his word, however, and requested that the site of the Temple be moved from
its original location. He also began deporting Jews to North Africa.
The Jews prepared to rebel
until Rabbi Joshua ben Hananiah calmed them. The Jews then satisfied
themselves with preparing secretly in case a rebellion would later become
necessary. They built hideouts in caves and did shoddy work building weapons
so that the Romans would reject the weapons and return them to the Jews.
The Jews organized guerilla
forces and, in 123 C.E., began launching surprise attacks against the Romans.
From that point on, life only got worse for the Jews. Hadrian brought an
extra army legion, the “Sixth Ferrata,” into Judea to deal with the
terrorism. Hadrian hated “foreign” religions and forbade the Jews to perform
circumcisions. He appointed Tinneius Rufus governor of Judea. Rufus was a
harsh ruler who took advantage of Jewish women. In approximately 132 C.E.,
Hadrian began to establish a city in Jerusalem called Aelia Capitolina, the
name being a combination of his own name and that of the Roman god Jupiter
Capitolinus. He started to build a temple to Jupiter in place of the Jewish
Holy Temple.
As long as Hadrian remained
near Judea, the Jews stayed relatively quiet. When he left in 132, the
Jews began their rebellion on a large scale. They seized towns and fortified
them with walls and subterranean passages. Under the strong leadership of
Shimon Bar-Kochba, the Jews captured approximately 50 strongholds in
Palestine and 985 undefended towns and villages, including Jerusalem.
Jews from other countries, and even some gentiles, volunteered to join their
crusade. The Jews minted coins with slogans such as “The freedom of Israel”
written in Hebrew. Hadrian dispatched General Publus Marcellus, governor of
Syria, to help Rufus, but the Jews defeated both Roman leaders. The Jews then
invaded the coastal region and the Romans began sea battles against them.
The turning point of the war
came when Hadrian sent into Judea one of his best generals from Britain,
Julius Severus, along with former governor of Germania, Hadrianus Quintus
Lollius Urbicus. By that time, there were 12 army legions from Egypt,
Britain, Syria and other areas in Palestine. Due to the large number of
Jewish rebels, instead of waging open war, Severus besieged Jewish fortresses
and held back food until the Jews grew weak. Only then did his attack
escalate into outright war. The Romans demolished all 50 Jewish fortresses
and 985 villages. The main conflicts took place in Judea, the Shephela, the
mountains and the Judean desert, though fighting also spread to Northern
Israel. The Romans suffered heavy casualties as well and Hadrian did not send
his usual message to the Senate that “I and my army are well.”
The final battle of the war
took place in Bethar, Bar-Kochba’s headquarters, which housed both the
Sanhedrin (Jewish High Court) and the home of the Nasi (leader). Bethar was a
vital military stronghold because of its strategic location on a mountain
ridge overlooking both the Valley of Sorek and the important Jerusalem-Bet
Guvrin Road. Thousands of Jewish refugees fled to Bethar during the war. In
135 C.E., Hadrian’s army besieged Bethar and on the 9th of Av, the Jewish
fast day commemorating the destruction of the first and second Holy Temples,
the walls of Bethar fell. After a fierce battle, every Jew in Bethar was
killed. Six days passed before the Romans allowed the Jews to bury their
dead.
Following the battle of
Bethar, there were a few small skirmishes in the Judean Desert Caves, but the
war was essentially over and Judean independence was lost. The Romans plowed
Jerusalem with a yoke of oxen. Jews were sold into slavery and many were
transported to Egypt. Judean settlements were not rebuilt. Jerusalem was
turned into a pagan city called Aelia Capitolina and the Jews were forbidden
to live there. They were permitted to enter only on the 9th of Av to mourn
their losses in the revolt. Hadrian changed the country’s name from Judea to
Syria Palestina.
In the years following the
revolt, Hadrian discriminated against all Judeo-Christian sects, but the
worst persecution was directed against religious Jews. He made anti-religious
decrees forbidding Torah study, Sabbath observance, circumcision, Jewish
courts, meeting in synagogues and other ritual practices. Many
Jews assimilated and many sages and prominent men were martyred including
Rabbi Akiva and the rest of the Asara Harugei Malchut (ten martyrs).
This age of persecution lasted throughout the remainder of Hadrian’s reign,
until 138 C.E.
Sources:
Encyclopedia Judaica. “Bar Kochba.”
Keter Publishing House, Jerusalem.
A History of the Jewish People. H.H. Ben
Sasson, ed. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1969.
History Until 1880: Israel Pocket Library.
Keter Publishing House Ltd., Jerusalem, 1973.
The Jewish Encyclopedia. “Bar Kokba and
Bar Kokba War”. Funk and Wagnalls Co. London, 1902.
Kantor, Morris. The Jewish Time Line
Encyclopedia. Jason Aronson Inc., New Jersey, 1989.
