[CHAPTER XV.]
REVOLT OF THE JEWS AGAINST TRAJAN AND HIS SUCCESSORS.
Trajan and Asia—Revolt of the Jews—Hadrian—The Jewish Sibylline Books—The Attempted Rebuilding of the Temple—The Ordinances of Usha—Bar-Cochba—Akiba's Part in the War—Bar-Cochba's Victories—Suppression of the Revolt—Siege and Fall of Bethar.
96–138 C. E.
Nerva had chosen the Spaniard Ulpianus Trajan as his successor. This emperor, who was nearly sixty years old, set about realizing his favorite idea of annexing the territories lying between the Euphrates and Tigris and the Indus and Ganges to the Roman Empire, so as to win laurels similar to those obtained by Alexander the Great. In the Parthian lands he had an easy conquest; for this ancient kingdom—partly of Greek and partly of Persian origin—was torn asunder by the various pretenders to the throne, and offered but little resistance to the conqueror. Only the Jews, who lived in great numbers in this district, under the leadership of the Prince of the Captivity, possessed a certain amount of independence, and offered resistance to the Roman conqueror. The Babylonian Jews beheld in Trajan the descendant of those who had destroyed the Temple and condemned their brethren to miserable slavery, and armed themselves as if for a holy war. The town of Nisibis, which had always possessed a numerous Jewish population, displayed such obstinate resistance that it could be subdued only after a lengthy siege. The district of Adiabene, on the center branch of the Tigris, obeyed a ruler whose ancestors, scarcely a century before, had adopted Judaism. Mebarsapes, who was now on the throne of Adiabene, was, perhaps, also inclined towards Judaism. He fought bravely against Trajan, but was overcome by the Roman forces. Trajan, unlike any of his predecessors, witnessed after a very short space of time the glorious results of his campaign. Conquests seem to have met him half-way. When he withdrew into his winter quarters in Antioch (115–116), in order to receive homage, the chief campaign was almost at an end. In the spring he again set forth, in order to crush any opposition, and to carry into effect the long-cherished plan of conquering the Jews. But hardly had Trajan set out when the conquered people on the twin rivers revolted again. The Jews had a great share in this uprising; they spread anarchy through a great portion of the Roman Empire. Not alone the Babylonian Jews, but also the Jews of Egypt, Cyrenaica, Lybia, and those in the island of Cyprus were seized with the idea of shaking off the Roman yoke. As if possessed by an overwhelming power, the Jews of this far-lying district seized their weapons, as though to show the enemy that their power was not destroyed nor their courage broken, and that they were not willing to share the weakness and degradation of the times, and to sink without an effort amongst the masses of enslaved nations. Such unanimous action presupposes a concerted plan and a powerful leader. From Judæa the rebellion spread through the neighboring countries to the Euphrates and Egypt (116–117). In half a century after the fall of the Jewish State a new race had arisen, who inherited the zealous spirit of their fathers, and who bore in their hearts a vivid remembrance of their former independence. The hope of the Tanaite teacher, "Soon the Temple will be rebuilt," had kept alive a love of freedom in the Jewish youths, who had not lost the habit of using weapons in the schools. A legend relates that Trajan's wife (Plotina) had given birth to a son on the ninth of Ab, and lost it on the feast of Dedication, which the Jews kept in memory of the victory of the Hasmonæans, and she had interpreted their sorrowing as the hatred of an enemy, and their rejoicing as joy for her loss. The Empress therefore wrote to Trajan, "Instead of subduing the barbarians, you should rather punish the Jews who revolt against you."
In Judæa the leaders of the rebellion appear to have been two courageous men from Alexandria, Julianus and Pappus. The former seems to have been the Alabarch of Alexandria, or his relative, and a descendant of the celebrated Alexander Lysimachus. He and his companion enjoyed a princely position amongst the Jews. The meeting place of the revolutionary troops in Judæa was the plain of Rimmon, or the great plain of Jezreel. There exists but a dim picture of the proceedings, and only the issue of the revolt is known with certainty. In Cyrene, whose Jewish inhabitants had been encouraged to revolt against the Romans immediately after their defeat, the rebellion was at its height. They had a leader named Andreias, also called Lucuas, one of whose names was, perhaps, of an allegorical nature.
The Egyptian Jews, who in former times had been loyal to the Romans, this time made common cause with the rebels, and conducted operations as in every other revolution. They first attacked the neighboring towns, killed the Romans and Greeks, and avenged the destruction of their nationality on their nearest enemies. Encouraged by the result, they collected in troops and attacked the Roman army under the Roman general Lupus, who commanded the legions against the Jews. In the first encounter the wild enthusiasm gave the Jews an advantage over the Romans, and Lupus was defeated. The results of this victory were scenes of horror and barbarity on both sides, as was naturally the case in a racial war between people who carried in their hearts an ancient hatred which, when it came to a fiery outburst, could only be quenched by blood. The heathens who had taken flight after the defeat of the Roman army marched against Alexandria. The Jewish inhabitants who could bear arms, and who had joined in the revolt, were taken prisoners and killed amidst fearful tortures. The conquering Jewish troops felt themselves filled with a desire for revenge. In despair they invaded the Egyptian territories, imprisoned the inhabitants, and repaid cruelties with fresh cruelties. The Greek and Roman fugitives took to their boats, in order to escape pursuit on the bosom of the Nile; but armed Jews followed close behind them. The historian Appian, at that time an official in Alexandria, sought safety by taking flight at night, and would have fallen into the hands of his Jewish pursuers, had he not missed his way along the coast. The short description of his flight and his unexpected deliverance gives some idea of the terror excited by the Jewish populations, who had suffered so long at the hands of their enemies. The Jews are said to have eaten the flesh of the captive Greeks and Romans, to have smeared themselves with their blood, and to have wrapped themselves in the skins torn off them. These horrors are quite foreign to Jewish character and customs, but it is probably true that the Jews made the Romans and Greeks fight with wild animals or in the arena. This was a sad reprisal for the horrible drama to which Vespasian and Titus had condemned the captive Jews. In Cyrenaica 200,000 Greeks and Romans were slain by the Jews, and Lybia, the strip of land to the east of Egypt, was so utterly devastated that, some years later, new colonies had to be sent thither.
In the Island of Cyprus, which had for a long time previous been inhabited by Jews, who owned synagogues there, a certain Artemion headed the uprising against the Romans. The number of rebels was very great, and was probably strengthened by the discontented heathen inhabitants of the island. The Cyprian Jews are said to have destroyed Salamis, the capital of the island, and to have killed 240,000 Greeks.
Trajan, who was then in Babylon, greatly feared the outbreak of a revolt, and sent an army, proportionate in numbers to the anticipated danger. He entrusted an important force by land and sea to Martius Turbo, in order that he might quell the smouldering troubles of war which existed in Egypt, Cyrenaica, and on the island of Cyprus.
In the district of the Euphrates, where the Jews, notwithstanding the nearness of the Emperor's crushing army, had taken up a threatening position, he gave the chief command to his favorite general, Quietus, a Moorish prince of cruel disposition, whom he had appointed as his successor. It is not known who led the Jews of Babylon. Maximus, a Roman general, lost his life in the battle; Quietus had received orders to entirely annihilate the Jews of his district, so great was the fear and hatred of the Emperor of a nation whose power he seems in no way to have rightly estimated. Thus Trajan had to oppose the Jews on three sides, and had they united and mutually supported each other, the colossal Roman empire would perhaps have received a deadly blow. Martius Turbo, who had to oppose the Egyptian and Cyrenean revolts, went himself in his ships to the threatened spots, which he reached in five days. He avoided meeting the hostile forces in a sudden attack, coolly calculating that this would only give the victory to a people who were guided more by enthusiasm for an idea than by principles of military tactics. He preferred to weaken the rebels by repeated onslaughts, which gradually wearied them and thinned their ranks. The Jews, however, did not submit without making a brave defense. The heathen authorities, who were against the Jews, acknowledge that it was only after a contest of long duration that the Romans became masters of the situation. It was inevitable that the Romans should conquer in the end, as they had greater multitudes and greater skill in war, and especially as their cavalry had to encounter only half-armed foot-soldiers. Turbo displayed an amount of cruelty to the captives which was not strange to the Romans. The legions surrounded the prisoners and cut them to pieces, the women were lashed, and those who offered resistance were killed. The ancient Alexandrian synagogue, a marvel of Egyptian architecture, a basilica, was destroyed. From that time, says a Jewish source, the glory of Israel departed. In the massacre which Martius Turbo set on foot amongst the African Jews, the same source relates that the blood of the slain stained the sea to the island of Cyprus. This refers to the sea of blood which the Roman general shed amongst the Cyprian Jews.