Bar Kochba (Bar Kokhba) Definition

Hadrian transferred Julius Severus, governor of Britain, to deal with the revolt. He also sent  Hadrianus Quintus Lollius Urbicus, former governor of Germany.  Three legions, parts of other legions (a legion consisted of about 5,000 men plus foreign "auxiliaries" often in the same number, who provided horsemen and bowmen, plus slaves and camp followers)  and several auxiliaries were brought into the fight. The legions were VI Ferrata,  X Fretensis and XXII Deiotariana. XXII Deiotariana was apparently annihilated, caught in a valley, perhaps near Beit Guvrin. It was replaced by other reinforcements,  including II Traiana Fortis. Eventually most of the guerilla forces were rounded up and made a last stand in Betar, near Jerusalem where they were besieged. Bar Kochba and most of the remaining defenders died of starvation some time in 136, traditionally on the 9th day of Av (August), a date that coincides with the destruction of the temple. Fighting continued even after the surrender of Betar. The revolt was a significant military struggle for the Romans. Hadrian, in writing to the Senate, omitted the usual greeting, "If you and your children are well, it is well; I and the legions are well."

The Bar Kokhba revolt was crushed ferociously. Jewish sources report people burned alive wrapped in Torah scrolls, and other tortured with "combs" Cassius Dio, writing a century later, reported that over 580,000 people were killed, possibly a gross exaggeration. Jews were forbidden to live in Jerusalem and large numbers of Jews were certainly killed or deported and enslaved. Archeologists have found mass graves at several locations. The Romans systematically desecrated every Jewish and Christian holy place in Jerusalem, erecting a pig, symbol of the Tenth legion, but an abomination to Jews, on the Temple mount.

The revolt, in the tradition of the Maccabees, was foredoomed. The Roman Empire was still near the zenith of its power. Hadrian's reign was untroubled by the chaos, poor administration and mediocre generalship that is described so well by Gibbon for later stages of the empire. A hundred years later, this revolt might have met with success.

From the discussion of Bar Kokhba in Talmudic literature, it is evident that he never had the support of all factions of the religious establishment. From his letters, found near the Dead Sea in 1960, it  seems probable that the revolt did not have unanimous support in the Galilee or from Christians. From the mode of battle and the fact that the troops could meet in relatively small underground caves, we can judge that numbers actually engaged in fighting revolt were probably small. It seems to have been confined mostly to a relatively small area in Judea. In Gaul, Caesar's legions had been known to wipe out hosts ten times as numerous as themselves in open battle. It is unlikely that this was the case in guerilla warfare.

The crushing of the revolt however, was not the end of the Jewish presence in Palestine by any means, nor the end of Jewish willingness to fight for freedom. Hadrian died in 138 and Antoninus Pious restored the rights of the Jews in large part, though these were apparently abridged again from the time of constantine.  Jews continued to live in what was now called "Palestine" and to enjoy a degree of autonomy at times, as under Rabbi Yehuda Hanassi. Jews were willing allies of the Sassanid Persians when they conquered Palestine briefly.

In a superstitious age, the failure of the  Bar Kokhba revolt was treated as an omen. Christian writers insisted that it was the punishment of Jews by God for crucifixion of Jesus. Later, St Eusebius insisted that God would prevent the rebuilding of Jerusalem by the Jews. Christians buttressed this doctrine with supposedly prodigies that occurred when the Jews attempted to rebuild the temple under the Emperor Julian (called "the apostate").

However, the Jews were the harshest critics of Bar Kokhba. A perhaps dubious tradition claimed that Bar Kochba had false Messianic pretensions, and insisted that the failure of Bar Kochba indicated the futility of Jewish self defense in general.  In support of this, his name or pseudonym was cited. It may be an allusion to a biblical phrase that hints at the coming of the Messiah. Moreover, he called himself "Nasi." it was claimed that "Nasi" is a reference to the Messiah, but in fact, "Nasi" is a title that was used to mean "head" - equivalent to "director." The head of a Yeshiva was called "Nasi" and the head of the Jewish community in Palestine was called "Nasi." He could scarcely have called himself anything else.

Below is the section of the History of Cassius Dio, written about 100 years later, concerning the revolt of Bar Kochba.

Cassius Dio, Roman history 69.12.1-14.3

At Jerusalem, Hadrian founded a city in place of the one that had been razed to the ground, naming it Aelia Capitolina, and on the site of the temple of the god, he raised a new temple to Jupiter. This brought on a war of no slight importance nor of brief duration, for the Jews deemed it intolerable that foreign races should be settled in their city and foreign religious rites planted there. So long, indeed, as Hadrian was close by in Egypt and again in Syria, they remained quiet, save in so far as they purposely made of poor quality such weapons as they were called upon to furnish, in order that the Romans might reject them and they themselves might thus have the use of them. But when Hadrian went farther away, they openly revolted.

Indeed, they did not dare try conclusions with the Romans in the open field, but they occupied the advantageous positions in the country and strengthened them with mines and walls,  that they might have places of refuge whenever they should be hard pressed, and might meet together unobserved under ground; and they pierced these subterranean passages from above at intervals to let in air and light.

At first, the Romans took no account of them. Soon, however, all Judea had been stirred up, and the Jews everywhere were showing signs of disturbance, were gathering together, and giving evidence of great hostility to the Romans, partly by secret acts and partly by overt acts. Many outside nations, too, were joining them through eagerness for gain, and the whole earth, one might almost say, was being stirred up over the matter.

Then, indeed, Hadrian sent against them his best generals. First of these was Julius Severus, who was dispatched from Britain, where he was governor, against the Jews. Severus did not venture to attack his opponents in the open at any one point, in view of their numbers and their desperation, but by intercepting small groups, thanks to the number of his soldiers and his under-officers. By depriving them of food and shutting them up, he was able -rather slowly, to be sure, but with comparatively little danger- to crush, exhaust and exterminate them.

Very few of them in fact survived. Fifty of their most important outposts and nine hundred and eighty-five of their most famous villages were razed to the ground. Five hundred and eighty thousand men were slain in the various raids and battles, and the number of those that perished by famine, disease and fire was past finding out.

Thus nearly the whole of Judea was made desolate, a result of which the people had had forewarning before the war. For the tomb of Solomon, which the Jews regard as an object of veneration, fell to pieces of itself and collapsed, and many wolves and hyenas rushed howling into their cities.

Many Romans, moreover, perished in this war. Therefore Hadrian, in writing to the Senate, did not employ the opening phrase commonly affected by the emperors, 'If you and your children are in health, it is well; I and the legions are in health.

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