Jewish–Roman wars

Depiction of the Temple Menora being taken from Jerusalem on the Arch of Titus in Rome.

Date	66–136 (70 years)
Location	Roman Judea, Cyprus, Cyrenaica, Mesopotamia
Result	Decisive Roman Empire victory: Destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple Schism between Judaism and early Christianity Mass murder Judean population and diaspora of survivors Consolidation of non-messianic Jewish sects into Rabbinic Judaism Consolidation of Jewish center in Galilee
Territorial changes	Roman Judea (Iudaea) remained under Roman control, renamed and merged into the Province of Syria Palaestina

Belligerents

Roman Empire

Jewish Zealots;
Jewish rebels;
Bar-Kokhba's army.

Commanders and leaders

Titus

Vespasian

Simon Bar-Giora, Elazar Ben-Simon,Yehonatan mi-Gush Halav;

Artemion, Lukuas (Andreas), Julian and Pappus;

Simon bar Kokhba

Strength

Great revolt: 30,000 (Beth Horon) - 60,000 (Siege of Jerusalem)

Kitos War: forces of the eastern legions

Bar Kokhba revolt: 7 full legions with cohorts and auxilaries of 5 additional legions – about 120,000 total.

Great revolt: 25,000+ Jewish militias; 20,000 Edomeans

Kitos War: loosely organized tens of thousands

Bar-Kokhba revolt: 200,000 – 400,000 militia men

Casualties and losses

Great revolt: Legio XII Fulminata lost its aquila and Syrian contingent destroyed – about 20,000 casualties;

Kitos War: 240,000 civilians killed in Cyprus (per Dio), 200,000 in Cyrenaica;

Bar-Kokhba revolt: Legio XXII Deiotariana destroyed,
Legio IX Hispana possibly disbanded,
Legio X Fretensis - sustained heavy casualties

Great revolt: 250 thousand – 1,1 million (per Josephus) Jews massacred; enslavement of 97,000;

Kitos War: annihilation of Jewish communities in Cyprus, Cyrenaica and Alexandria;

Bar Kokhba revolt: 400,000 – 580,000 (per Dio) civilians and militia massacred,
985 Judean villages razed (per Cassius Dio).

v t e Jewish–Roman wars

Preceding events Judas uprising (6 CE) Alexandria (38 CE) Jacob and Simon uprising (46 CE) Major wars Great Revolt of Judea Kitos War Bar Kokhba revolt

The Jewish–Roman wars were a series of large-scale revolts by the Jews of Iudaea Province and the Eastern Mediterranean against the Roman Empire. Some sources use the term to refer only to the First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE) and Bar Kokhba revolt (132–135 CE) while others include the Kitos War (115–117) as one of the Jewish–Roman wars, although this revolt started among the Jewish diaspora in Cyrenaica, and only its final stages were actually fought within Judaea Province.

The Jewish–Roman wars had an epic impact on the Jews, turning them from a major population in the Eastern Mediterranean into a scattered and persecuted minority. The events also had a major impact on Judaism, as the central worship site of Second Temple Judaism, the Second Temple in Jerusalem, was destroyed by Titus' troops. Although the Samaritans gained some sort of autonomy in the 4th century and the Jews later succeeded in establishing the short-lived Sassanid Jewish Commonwealth in 614 CE, Jewish dominance in parts of the Southern Levant was regained only in the mid-20th century, with the founding of the state of Israel in 1948.

Sequence[edit]

The Jewish–Roman wars include the following:

First Jewish–Roman War (66–73) - also called the First Jewish Revolt or the Great Jewish Revolt, spanning from the 66 CE insurrection, through the 67 fall of the Galilee, the destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple and institution of the Fiscus Judaicus in 70, and finally the fall of Masada in 73.
Kitos War (115–117) - known as the "Rebellion of the Exile" and sometimes called the Second Jewish-Roman War.
Bar Kokhba revolt (132–135) - also called the Second Jewish-Roman War (when Kitos War is not counted), or the Third (when the Kitos War is counted).

Background[edit]

Main articles: Jacob and Simon uprising and Alexandria pogroms

Following increasing Roman domination of the Eastern Mediterranean, the client kingdom of the Herodian dynasty had been officially merged into the Roman Empire in the year 6 CE with the creation of Roman Judea. The transition of the Tetrarchy of Judea into a Roman province immediately brought a great deal of tensions and a Jewish uprising by Judas of Galilee erupted right away as a response to the Census of Quirinius.

Though initially pacified, the province continued to be a source of trouble under Emperor Caligula (after 37 CE). The cause of tensions in the east of the Empire was complicated, involving the spread of Greek culture, Roman Law and the rights of Jews in the Empire. Caligula did not trust the prefect of Roman Egypt, Aulus Avilius Flaccus. Flaccus had been loyal to Tiberius, had conspired against Caligula's mother and had connections with Egyptian separatists.^{[better source needed]} In 38 CE, Caligula sent Agrippa to Alexandria unannounced to check on Flaccus.^{[better source needed]} According to Philo, the visit was met with jeers from the Greek population, who saw Agrippa as the king of the Jews.^{[better source needed]} Flaccus tried to placate both the Greek population and Caligula by having statues of the emperor placed in Jewish synagogues.^{[better source needed]} As a result, extensive religious riots broke out in the city. Caligula responded by removing Flaccus from his position and executing him. In AD 39, Agrippa accused Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee and Perea, of planning a rebellion against Roman rule with the help of Parthia. Herod Antipas confessed and Caligula exiled him. Agrippa was rewarded with his territories.

Riots again erupted in Alexandria in 40 CE between Jews and Greeks. Jews were accused of not honoring the emperor. Disputes occurred also in the city of Jamnia. Jews were angered by the erection of a clay altar and destroyed it. In response, Caligula ordered the erection of a statue of himself in the Temple of Jerusalem, a demand in conflict with Jewish monotheism. In this context, Philo wrote that Caligula "regarded the Jews with most especial suspicion, as if they were the only persons who cherished wishes opposed to his". The governor of Roman Syria, Publius Petronius, fearing civil war if the order were carried out, delayed implementing it for nearly a year. Agrippa finally convinced Caligula to reverse the order. However, only Caligula's death at the hands of Roman conspirators in 41 CE prevented a full scale war in Judaea, that might have well spread to the entire Eastern Roman Empire.

Caligula's death didn't stop the tensions completely and in 46 CE an insurrection by the Jews broke out in Judeaea province. The Jacob and Simon uprising was instigated by two brothers Simon and Jacob and lasted between 46-48 CE. The revolt, which concentrated in the Galilee began as sporadic insurgency and when climaxed in 48 CE was quickly put down by Roman authorities and both brothers executed.

History[edit]

Great Revolt[edit]

Main article: Great Revolt of Judea

The Great Revolt began in the year 66 CE, originated in the Greek and Jewish religious tensions, later escalated due to anti-taxation protests and attacks upon Roman citizens. In response to Roman plunder of the Second Jewish Temple and numerous executions of Jews in Jerusalem, a full-scale rebellion erupted. The Roman military garrison of Judaea was quickly overrun by rebels and the pro-Roman king Agrippa II fled Jerusalem, together with Roman officials to Galilee. Cestius Gallus, the legate of Syria, brought the Syrian army, based on XII Fulminata, reinforced by auxiliary troops, to restore order and quell the revolt. Despite initial advances, the Syrian Legion was ambushed and defeated by Jewish rebels at the Battle of Beth Horon, a result that shocked the Roman leadership.

The experienced and unassuming general Vespasian was then tasked with crushing the rebellion in Judaea province. His second-in-command was appointed his son Titus. Vespasian was given four legions and assisted by forces of King Agrippa II in 67 CE he invaded Galilee. While avoiding a direct attack on reinforced city of Jerusalem packed with main rebel force, Titus' forces launched a persistent campaign of terror to eradicate rebel strongholds and punish the population. Within several months Vaspasian and Titus took over the major Jewish strongholds of Galilee and finally overran Jodapatha, following a 47 day siege.

Driven from Galilee, Zealot rebels and thousands of refugees arrived to Judea, creating a political turmoil in Jerusalem. The Jewish Civil War erupted soon, confronting the mainly Saducee Jerusalemites and the mainly Zealot factions of the Northern Revolt under the command of John of Giscala and Simon Bar Giora. Though the most radical Sicarii were ousted from the city and a cease fire eventually agreed among the rebels, in the year 68 CE mutual massacres resulted in an almost complete eradication of the original revolt leaders.

After a lull in the military operations, owing to civil war and political turmoil in Rome, Vaspasian was called to Rome and appointed a new Emperor in 69 CE. With Vaspasian's departure, Titus moved on besieging the center of rebel resistance in Jerusalem in the year 70 CE. Following a brutal seven month siege, in which the Zealots burned the entire food supplies of the city to enhance "fighting to the end", the Romans finally succeeded in breaching the weakened Jewish forces in summer of 70 CE. Following the fall of Jerusalem, Titus defeated the remaining Jewish strongholds later on, finalizing his campaign in Masada.

Kitos War[edit]

Main article: Kitos War

Bar Kokhba Revolt[edit]

Main article: Bar Kokhba revolt

Aftermath[edit]

The defeat of the Jewish revolt altered the Jewish diaspora, as many of the Jewish rebels were scattered or sold into slavery. Before Vespasian's departure, the Pharisaic sage and Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai obtained his permission to establish a Judaic school at Yavne. Zakkai was smuggled away from Jerusalem in a coffin by his students. This school later became a major center of Talmudic study (see Mishnah).

Hadrian attempted to root out Judaism, which he saw as the cause of continuous rebellions. He prohibited the Torah and the Hebrew calendar and executed Judaic scholars. The sacred scroll was ceremonially burned on the Temple Mount. At the former Temple sanctuary he installed two statues, one of Jupiter, another of himself. In an attempt to erase any memory of Judea or Ancient Israel, he wiped the name off the map and replaced it with Syria Palaestina, supplanting earlier terms, such as Judaea. Similarly, he re-established Jerusalem but now as the Roman polis of Aelia Capitolina, and Jews were forbidden from entering it, except on the day of Tisha B'Av.

Rabbinic Judaism became a religion centered around synagogues, and the Jews themselves dispersed throughout the Roman world and beyond. With the destruction of Jerusalem, important centers of Jewish culture developed in the Galilee and in Babylonia and work on the Talmud continued in these locations.

References[edit]

"Cyprus". JewishEncyclopedia.com.
"Legio VIIII Hispana". Livius.
Rivka Shpak Lissak. "The Roman Policy: Elimination the Jewish National-Cultural Entity and the Jewish Majority in the Land of Israel". Retrieved 15 January 2011.
Philo of Alexandria, Flaccus III.8, IV.21.
Philo of Alexandria, Flaccus V.26–28.
Philo of Alexandria, Flaccus V.29.
Philo of Alexandria, Flaccus VI.43.
Philo of Alexandria, Flaccus VII.45.
Philo of Alexandria, Flaccus XXI.185.
Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews XVIII.7.2.
Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews XVIII.8.1.
Philo of Alexandria, On the Embassy to Gaius XXX.201.
Philo of Alexandria, On the Embassy to Gaius XXX.203.
Philo of Alexandria, On the Embassy to Gaius XVI.115.
Philo of Alexandria, On the Embassy to Gaius XXXI.213.
H.H. Ben-Sasson, A History of the Jewish People, Harvard University Press, 1976, - get this book, The Crisis Under Gaius Caligula, pages 254-256: "The reign of Gaius Caligula (37-41) witnessed the first open break between the Jews and the Julio-Claudian empire. Until then - if one accepts Sejanus' heyday and the trouble caused by the census after Archelaus' banishment - there was usually an atmosphere of understanding between the Jews and the empire ... These relations deteriorated seriously during Caligula's reign, and, though after his death the peace was outwardly re-established, considerable bitterness remained on both sides. ... Caligula ordered that a golden statue of himself be set up in the Temple in Jerusalem. ... Only Caligula's death, at the hands of Roman conspirators (41), prevented the outbreak of a Jewish-Roman war that might well have spread to the entire East."
Josephus, War of the Jews II.8.11, II.13.7, II.14.4, II.14.5
H.H. Ben-Sasson, A History of the Jewish People, page 334: "Jews were forbidden to live in the city and were allowed to visit it only once a year, on the Ninth of Ab, to mourn on the ruins of their holy Temple."

v t e Major articles in Jewish history

Timeline Early history The 12 Tribes of Israel Schisms Israel Judah Ten Lost Tribes Babylonian exile Hasmoneans and Greece Sanhedrin Jewish–Roman wars Pharisees Diaspora Middle Ages Under Muslim rule Enlightenment/Haskalah Israel

See also: WP:Jewish history

v t e Ancient Roman wars

Wars of the Roman Republic	Roman-Etruscan Wars Roman-Latin wars Roman-Volscian wars Samnite Wars Pyrrhic War Punic Wars (First, Second, Third) Macedonian Wars (Illyrian, First Macedonian, Second Macedonian, Seleucid, Third Macedonian, Fourth Macedonian) Jugurthine War Cimbrian War Servile Wars (First, Second, Third) Social War Civil wars of Lucius Cornelius Sulla (First, Second) Mithridatic Wars (First, Second, Third) Gallic Wars Caesar's invasions of Britain Julius Caesar's civil war End of the Republic (Post-Caesarian, Liberators', Sicilian, Fulvia's, Final)

Wars of the Roman Empire	Germanic Wars (Marcomannic, Alamannic, Gothic, Visigothic) Wars in Britain Wars of Boudica Armenian War Civil War of 69 Jewish-Roman Wars Domitian's Dacian War Trajan's Dacian Wars Parthian Wars Persian Wars Civil Wars of the Third Century Wars of the Fall of the Western Roman Empire

Military history

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