LAST STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY.
Bar Cochba.
Preparations for rebellion had been carefully planned for some years. Arms had been stored in caves. Akiba was the inspiration of the revolt, its Deborah, let us say. But who was to be its Barak? The times created the man. A hero appeared to lead the forces of Israel whom the multitude in admiration called Bar Cochba (son of a star). This title may have been suggested by the name of his birthplace, Koziba, but chiefly also because he was regarded by the enthusiasts as the long-looked-for Messiah. This man, of colossal strength and strategic resources, was going to make Rome feel the power of a scorned people. Reinforcements came fast to the banner of the supposed Messiah, scion of David's house, who was to throw off the yoke of Rome and restore the throne of Judah. Soon he had half a million men at his back.
The Roman governor, Tinnius Rufus, who is the Talmud's archetype of cruelty, fled with his garrison. In the first year of the war fifty fortresses and a thousand towns capitulated before the advancing arms of Bar Cochba; for the presence of the beloved Akiba gave confidence to all. We might say of him as was written of Moses, "When Akiba raised his hand, Israel prevailed."
Hadrian, who first slighted the insurrection, had soon reason to fear it. His best generals were dispatched to Judea only to be repulsed. Already Bar Cochba was having coins struck with his insignia. Alas the act was premature. King Ahab once said, "Let not him boast who putteth on his armor as he who taketh it off." In the meantime Roman prisoners of war were treated with great forbearance; indeed some heathens, impressed with the enthusiasm of the Jews, had joined their ranks.
General Severus.
Eventually, after Bar Cochba had held sway for two years without cavalry and had repulsed every Roman army, Hadrian, alarmed, summoned the great general, Julius Severus, from distant Britain. The Jewish focus of operations was at Bethar, south of Caesarea, and one mile from the Mediterranean, and fortifications had been placed north, west and east to hold control of the country. Jezreel commanded the centre.
Like Vespasian, the great general Severus, decided on siege rather than attack. So he steadily cut off supplies and provisions and also barbarously put to death all prisoners of war. There was no Josephus to give us vivid details of this campaign, so we only know its general result. The three great outlying fortresses on the frontier were first mastered. The next battle took place on the field of Jezreel. One by one the Jewish fortresses fell. The whole Judean army was now concentrated in Bethar where the decisive battle must be waged. It was the Jerusalem of this war. Severus resolved to starve it out. For one year the Jews bravely held out against the finest army of the age. At last some Romans found a way into Bethar through a subterranean passage which some Samaritans, it is said, betrayed. Then followed an awful carnage in which Roman horses "waded to the nostrils in Jewish blood." More than half a million souls were slain and thousands more perished by fire and hunger. Yet so great were also the Roman losses that Hadrian in his message of the campaign to the Roman senate, significantly omitted the formula, "I and the army are well."
In the year 135 Bethar fell and tradition places it on the same date so disastrous in Jewish annals—the 9th of Ab. The Roman soldiers kept up a war of extermination against the scattered bands that still held out. Many who had taken refuge in caves were brutally massacred. All the Jews throughout the Roman Empire were made to feel the weight of Hadrian's anger in heavy taxation. As though wantonly to mark its complete desolation, the plow was passed over Jerusalem. North of it was built a Roman city—Aelia Capitolina. On the Temple Mount was erected a shrine dedicated to Jupiter, with the vindictive purpose of obliterating the very name of Jerusalem. (And it was forgotten—for one hundred and fifty years.) No Jew dared enter that city under penalty of death. But all this was but preliminary to his real punishment of those who were called rebels only because they failed. Keener sighted than Vespasian, who blotted out the Nation but tolerated the Faith, Hadrian saw that there was only one way to crush the Jew; that was by crushing his religion. To that abortive purpose he now devoted himself with all the inhumanity of a Pharaoh. To the cruel but cowardly Tinnius Rufus, who had fled at the first alarm, that task was entrusted. Judaism was proscribed. Obedience to its Law was declared a capital crime. Should they commit physical or spiritual suicide was the dilemma that now faced Israel. Was ever a people reduced to such straits?