Reasons for the Bar Kochba Revolt

Killing more than half a million Jews and destroying almost a thousand villages, the Bar Kochba Revolt (132-35) was a major event in Jewish history and a blotch on the reputation of the good emperor Hadrian. The revolt was named for a man called Shimon, on coins, Bar Kosibah, on papyrus, Bar Kozibah, on rabbinic literature, and Bar Kokhba, in Christian writing. Bar Kochba was the leader of the rebel Jewish forces. The rebels may have held land south of Jerusalem and Jericho and north of Herbron and Masada. They may have reached into Samaria, Galilee, Syria, and Arabia. They survived (as long as they did) by means of caves, used for weapons storage and hiding, and tunnels.

The war was very bloody on both sides, so much so that Hadrian failed to declare a triumph when he returned to Rome at the revolt's conclusion.

Why did the Jews rebel when it must have seemed likely the Romans would defeat them, as they had before? Suggested reasons are:

• Circumcision
  Pseudo-Spartianus says Hadrian's prohibition against genital mutilation caused the revolt (Life of Harian 14.2).
• Sacrilege
  Cassius Dio (Roman History 69.12) said it was Hadrian's decision to rename Jerusalem Aelia Capitolina, to establish a Roman colony there, and to build a pagan temple.

References:

• _{Axelrod, Alan. Little-Known Wars of Great and Latin Impact. Fair Winds Press, 2009.}
• _{"The Archaeology of Roman Palestine," by Mark Alan Chancey and Adam Lowry Porter. Near Eastern Archaeology, Vol. 64, No. 4 (Dec., 2001), pp. 164-203.}
• _{"The bar Kokhba Revolt: The Roman Point of View," by Werner Eck. The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 89 (1999), pp. 76-89}