Roman Fury: Crushing the Bar Kokhba Revolt

The Bar Kokhba Revolt (132–136 AD) was the final major conflict between the Jewish people and the Roman Empire. Following earlier confrontations, including the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD and the Kitos War (115–117 AD), this revolt saw Jews uniting under the charismatic Simon Bar Kokhba. Initially successful, the uprising briefly reclaimed Jerusalem and major parts of Judea. However, Roman forces eventually crushed the rebellion using scorched-earth tactics. The revolt devastated Judean society, leading to widespread death, enslavement, and exile of Jews. Despite happening nearly 2000 years ago, the Bar Kokhba Revolt’s repercussions continue to be felt to this day.

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The Bar Kokhba Revolt- The Romans and Ethnic Cleansing

Much of what we know about the Bar Kokhba revolt comes with a pretty big caveat- source reliability. Compared to the revolt of 66 AD, which had Josephus Flavius as its chronicler, there are just not that many historical sources who wrote about the Bar Kokhba Revolt. Even fewer can be seen as reliable. 

For non-Jewish sources, all we really have is Cassius Dio’s Roman History and some entries by the Christian historian Eusebius, the bishop of Caesarea. These sources give useful information, but since they were written by Romans and Christians, bias is an obvious concern.

The Jewish sources are even less reliable. Found mostly in the Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmuds, they are religious texts that mix historical facts with religious legends. They’re useful for painting a general picture of what happened to the Jews during the revolt and after, but they can’t be relied on for specific details. The rabbinic sources are rife with inaccuracies, apocryphal additions, and biases.

Thankfully, several important archaeological finds have helped fill in the gaps in our knowledge. Coins minted during Judea’s brief independence from Rome tell us that there was indeed an independent Jewish state for a spell. Likewise, a cave in the Judean desert, rediscovered in the 1960s, is believed to have held Jewish refugees during the fighting. Known as the “Cave of Letters” it held documents, including letters written by Bar Kokhba, that offer fascinating insights into the man behind the revolt.

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The Cave of the Letters is the name of a cave in Nahal Heber in the Judean Desert, where important finds from the days of the Bar Kochba rebellion were discovered, including letters written by Bar Kochba to the people of Ein Gedi. (Israel Antiquities Authority/CC BY-SA 4.0)

Causes of the Revolt

This lack of accurate sources means we don’t even have a clear idea of what caused the revolt. Cassius Dio claimed that Emperor Hadrian sparked the revolt when he decided to reconstitute Jerusalem as a pagan city and placed a temple to Jupiter on the site of the Second Temple, a chief place of Jewish worship and a pivotal symbol of Jewish identity at the time. 

Eusebius, on the other hand, disagreed. Sparking a chicken or the egg-style debate, he believed that Hadrian’s actions were a result of the war, not the cause. Rabbinic sources, on the other hand, claim that Hadrian was originally sympathetic to the Jews and planned on rebuilding the Second Temple. According to them, he only changed his mind after speaking with an ill-intentioned Samaritan (in these sources, all Samaritans are ill-intentioned). The Historia Augusta (a famously inaccurate source of historical information), meanwhile, claims that the revolt was sparked by Hadrian, a Hellenist, banning the practice of circumcision. 

In reality, it’s more likely no one thing sparked the revolt, and instead, it was the result of a mixture of grievances and events. Modern historians have supposed that administrative changes, an influx of privileged Roman citizens, and a period of economic decline may have contributed to the revolt in the long term. Furthermore, a surge in Jewish nationalism thanks to similar revolts in Egypt, Cyrenaica, and Mesopotamia likely played a role.

In the short term, it seems that the Romans building a new city over the ruins of Jerusalem, Aelia Capitolina, helped lead to the revolt. It was during this that Hadrian supposedly built over the Second Temple, greatly angering the Jews. 

Most also agree that Judea’s Roman governor, Quintus Tineius Rufus, played a key role in sparking the revolt. A hated and tyrannical official, the Talmud describes him as “the wicked” and claims he personally ploughed over the beloved temple. This event turned many Jews against Roman rule. The Talmud also states he issued a writ of execution for one beloved Rabbi, Gamliel, and openly mocked another, Akiva, describing the Jews as "slaves.”

While the sources differ, archaeological evidence has shown that, unlike the earlier Jewish revolts, this one was planned. The Jews made sure to collect weapons, dig tunnel systems for guerilla tactics, and unite under a single leader. They waited until Hadrian finished his tour of the eastern provinces and then rose together to attack the Romans when they least expected it.

Territory held by the rebels in blue. (Rh0809/CC BY-SA 4.0)

The Leader- Simon Bar Kokhba

The first Jewish revolt had been hamstrung by infighting amongst the Jews themselves. In their final revolt against the Romans, the Jews avoided making this mistake again by uniting behind one man- Simon Bar Kokhba. A man we know surprisingly little about.

For a start, historians don’t even know his real name. Bar Kokhba is an epithet meaning “son of a star” in Aramaic, while the rabbinical sources call him Shimon Ben-Cozba. In the Bar Kokhba letters, the man himself goes by the name Shimon-Ben Cosiba.

Whatever his real name, some Jews of the time seemed to have believed Simon bar Kokhba was the messiah. The respected Rabbi Akivia wrote to his fellow rabbis, saying that Ben-Cosiba was, “ hu malcha mashicha,” aka the king messiah. Other rabbis, however, weren’t convinced. In some rabbinic sources, Simon Bar Kokhba is referred to as cuzav a play on his name that means “false” implying that they saw him as a false messiah.

Simon bar Kokhba on the Knesset Menorah (Deror avi/CC BY-SA 3.0)

Still, the fact that at least some Jews saw their leader as the messiah adds an interesting wrinkle to the revolt. It suggests that it wasn’t just a political upheaval and a reaction to Roman rule, it was a religious rebellion powered by a belief in the fact that the Messiah had arrived.

Eusebius didn’t have anything nice to say about the Jewish leader. He described him as, “a man who was murderous and a bandit, but relied on his name, as if dealing with slaves, and claimed to be a luminary come from heaven and was magically enlightening those who were in misery". Which is about as damning as it gets.

Perhaps surprisingly, the Jewish sources also fail to paint Bar Kokhba in a positive light for the most part. There are a handful of points where he is made to sound like a legendary hero (even deflecting a Ballista bolt with his leg), but he’s mostly portrayed as a charlatan. He’s repeatedly referred to as a false messiah who brought ruin to the Jewish people. In one story, he kicks an elderly rabbi to death, while in another, he angers God by mutilating Roman soldiers. The rabbis even take credit for assassinating him in the end (although all evidence points to this being false).

The most accurate source of information on Bar Kokhba comes from the Bar Kokhba letters. These show that he was imperious, demanding, and determined, but do not suggest he was anywhere near as tyrannical as other sources claim. Whether or not he believed, or even claimed, that he was the Messiah is unclear. What is clear, however, is that he did his best in leading his people against the Romans, even if he ultimately failed.

The Revolt

Much like everything else to do with the Bar Kokhba Revolt, details on the actual uprising itself are thin on the ground, and much of what the ancient sources say has to be taken with a grain of salt. This being said, one thing seems clear- the Jews got off to a solid start before being brutally put down by the Romans.

According to Cassius Dio, things kicked off in 132 AD with the Jews using guerilla warfare to catch the Romans off guard. The fighting seems to have kicked off in Modi’in before spreading across the country, with the Jews cutting off the garrison in Jerusalem. Initially, the Roman legions sent to put down the rebellion seemed to have failed, leading to Roman reinforcements from nearby provinces being called in.

Exactly how successful the Jews were in the beginning is unclear. According to Rabbinic forces, Bar Kokhba led a 400,000-strong army of Jews and named himself Nasi Israel. These same sources state that Bar Kokhba ruled over an independent Israel for more than two and a half years. 

How accurate this information has remained unclear. It is likely that at the height of the revolt, the Jews held large chunks of land, but we don’t know if they ever managed to take control of Jerusalem itself or not. The only real evidence is a coin that refers to herut yerushalayim, or "the freedom of Jerusalem," but it’s anyone's guess if it’s literal or figurative.

Coin from Jewish Bar Korkhva revolt. Description: on one side trumpets surrounded by writing "To the freedom of Jerusalem", on the other side: a lyre surrounded by writing "Year two to the freedom of Israel"; written in Paleo-Hebrew alphabet also known as "Ktav Ivri". (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Still, the revolt must have been fairly successful at its peak because, in 133/4 Hadrian brought in the big guns to put it down. Following a series of setbacks, Hadrian summoned his best generals, including Julius Severus, to end the revolt. The fact that Severus was in Britain at this time highlights just how serious Hadrian was. 

Severus decided not to rush in. He adopted a slow and brutal strategy in which he had the Roman legions slowly advance across the Jewish-held lands, destroying their infrastructure as he went. 

It’s estimated that around one-third of the Roman army was sent to crush the revolt. Dio wrote that countless Jewish outposts and villages were burned to the ground by the Roman army while 580,000 Jewish men were slain. Many more Jews died from famine, disease, and fire. 

Other stories tell how Jerusalem was leveled, and that countless Jews were massacred in mass killings. Jewish sources go into even more detail, describing how Roman soldiers delighted in smashing babies against rocks and slaughtering civilians. One Rabbis describes a wall of corpses built by the Romans made of dead civilians.

While these stories are mostly apocryphal, one thing is clear. In putting down the Bar Kokhba Revolt Hadrian and Severus practiced what would be called ethnic cleansing by today’s standards. 

After losing many of their strongholds, Bar Kokhba and his remnants retreated to Betar, which came under siege in the summer of 135 AD. Legio V Macedonica and Legio XI Claudia took part in the siege. According to Jewish tradition, the fortress was breached and destroyed on Tisha B'Av, the ninth day of the lunar month Av, a day of mourning for the destruction of the First and Second Jewish Temples. 

Rabbinical literature attributes the defeat to Bar Kokhba killing his maternal uncle, Rabbi Elazar Hamudaʻi, suspecting him of collaborating with the enemy, thus forfeiting divine protection. The scene after the city's capture was a massacre, with the Jerusalem Talmud describing the number of dead in Betar as enormous, noting that the Romans “went on killing until their horses were submerged in blood to their nostrils and the blood ran into the sea.”

A rabbinic midrash recounts the execution of eight leading members of the Sanhedrin by the Romans: Rabbi Akiva, Haninah ben Teradion, Rabbi Huspith, Eleazar ben Shammua, Hanina ben Hakinai, Jeshbab the Scribe, Judah ben Dama, and Judah ben Bava. The precise date of Akiva's execution is disputed, with some placing it at the revolt's beginning and others in its final phases. The rabbinic accounts describe agonizing tortures: Akiva was flayed with iron combs, Ishmael had the skin of his head pulled off slowly, and Haninah was burned at a stake, with wet wool held by a Torah scroll wrapped around his body to prolong his death.

Following Betar's fall, Roman forces systematically eliminated the remaining Jewish villages and sought out refugees, with Legio III Cyrenaica executing this final phase. Historians disagree on the duration of this campaign; some argue resistance was quickly broken, while others suggest pockets of rebels continued into late 135 and early 136 AD. The revolt was decisively defeated by early 136 AD, with the Babylonian Talmud noting that Bar Kokhba's reign lasted only two and a half years.

As for Bar Kokhba himself, no one seems to know what happened to him. Most sources seem to agree that he probably died during the final battle of Beitar, or perhaps just before, but exactly how he died is never made clear. As mentioned earlier, later Rabbinic sources claimed the rabbis themselves killed him after seeing what he’d brought down on the Jews, but this seems unlikely.

Aftermath 

Following the revolt, Hadrian did his best to completely delete Jewish identity. He changed the name of Judea to Palestina in an attempt to erase its Jewish history and banned all Jewish law and rituals. As mentioned above, he also ensured Jewish religious leaders like Akiva were martyred, and he permanently converted Jerusalem into the pagan city of Aelia Capitolina. Jews weren’t even allowed to live within sight of the city.

Aelia Capitolina (Carole Raddato/CC BY-SA 2.0)

This may have been overkill. Evidence suggests that most of the region’s Jews had either been massacred, died of disease and famine, or had been made slaves. There just weren’t that many Jews left, and the demography of Judea had shifted massively to a non-Jewish population. 

Following the revolt’s end, most remaining Jews lived outside of Israel, especially in Babylonia. The Jews had been made a stateless people and wouldn’t return to Judea for almost 2000 years. 

Conclusion

The Bar Kokhba Revolt, marked by intense Roman brutality, had profound and lasting consequences. The destruction of Judean society, mass killings, and enslavement devastated the Jewish population. The revolt's failure extinguished hopes for Jewish independence for nearly two millennia. 

The harsh Roman response influenced Jewish diaspora identity and resilience. These historical wounds underpin modern tensions in Israel/Palestine, highlighting the ongoing struggle for sovereignty and self-determination in the region. The revolt remains a poignant reminder of the impact of ancient conflicts on contemporary geopolitical and cultural landscapes, shaping the complex dynamics between Jewish and Palestinian communities today.

Top image: Roman Triumphal arc showing Roman soldiers plundering Jewish treasures.  Source:   בית השלום/CC BY 3.0

By Robbie Mitchell