were prohibited from setting foot on it on pain of death. After the revolt,
there is no more evidence for Jewish settlement in the countryside of
Egypt or Cyrene. Tragically, the great Jewish community of Alexandria dis-
appeared and seems to have been destroyed, although there are a few traces
of Jews left in the city afterward. Outside of the region under revolt, how-
ever, there does not seem to have been any anti-Jewish backlash. In the fol-
lowing years, large swaths of North African territory needed to be resettled
and repopulated. Trajan and his successor Hadrian used confiscated Jew-
ish property to fund the reconstruction efforts, especially the rebuilding of
pagan temples.The Bar Kokhba Revolt
After suppressing the Jews of Mesopotamia, Lusius Quietus was elected
consul, and Trajan then appointed him governor of Judea. There are no
specific details concerning any war in Judea related to the Diaspora upris-
ings of 115-117, and none of the Greek or Latin sources refers to fighting in
Judea during this period. Rabbinic sources (Seder{Olam Rabbah30;m.
Sonah9:14) do mention a “War of Kitos” that occurred fifty-two years after
Vespasian’s war and sixteen years before the Bar Kokhba Revolt. Like these
two wars, the “War of Kitos” saw the passage of sumptuary laws by the rab-
bis and a prohibition of teaching Greek. Nevertheless, the rabbinic sources
are ambiguous at best. Rabbinic tradition preserves an account of two mar-
tyrs, Julianus and Pappus, who supposedly died under Trajan, but these
deaths could have taken place anywhere (m. Sonah9:14;Megillat Ta{anit29).
However, war and rebellion soon came to Judea, led by a charismatic
leader, Shimon ben Kosiba. Later rabbinic sources claim that Ben Kosiba
received the support of Rabbi Akiba, who renamed the revolutionary
leader Bar Kokhba (Aramaic for “Son of the Star”) in reference to the
prophecy in Num. 24:17 (“A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise
out of Israel”). Bar Kokhba does not make any messianic claim in his let-
ters, but on his coins he is called “prince(naki})of Israel,” a title that had a
long history of messianic associations.
The immediate causes of the war are unclear because we lack a de-
tailed narrative of its course. It is likely that economic distress, hatred of
the Romans, and anger over the destruction of the Temple played major
roles in inciting Jews to rebel. Further, land confiscations probably exacer-
bated economic hardship, and religious factors also seem to have been in-65Jewish History from Alexander to HadrianEERDMANS -- Early Judaism (Collins and Harlow) final text
Tuesday, October 09, 2012 12:03:53 PM