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Bar Kokhba Revolt from Cassius Dio

This is an excerpt from Roman History by Cassius Dio (c. AD 155-229). It is one of the few historical references to the Bar Kokhba Revolt and only hints at the violence inflicted on the Jewish people of Iudaea.

Book LXIX
12 At Jerusalem he (Hadrian) founded a city in place of the one which 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 he went farther away, they openly revolted. To be sure, 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, in order 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.
13 At first the Romans took no account of them. Soon, however, all Judaea 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 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, and 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.
14 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 Judaea 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 our children are in health, it is well; I and the legions are in health.”
Read more of Cassius Dio’s Roman History at http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/home.html
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IUD̠A РA Novel

Welcome the official site of Iudæa – the story of a Roman cavalry officer who is pulled from his assignment patrolling Hadrian’s Wall in Britannia to the hills of Iudaea where a Jewish rebellion rages.  Ripped from his family, the conflict challenges everything he knows: his friendships, his ideals, the very purpose of his life.  The story reveals the Roman world of the 2nd century and the events surrounding the epic Bar Kokhba Revolt while showing one man’s struggle to reconcile his responsibilities as a soldier, a husband, and a father.

Over the next six months I will release half a chapter a week for curious readers.  I hope you enjoy the story and I welcome all your comments and constructive criticism concerning both the history and the quality of the writing.

I will also be posting 1 or 2 additional posts a week showing the history behind the story and illustrations and images to compliment the writing.

Here is a tentative schedule of upcoming posts:

May 21 – Chapter 1, First Half
May 24 – History – Cassius Dio
May 27 – Chapter 1, Second Half
May 30 – Book Reviews: Rome and Jerusalem & Bandits, Prophets, and Messiahs
June 2 – Chapter 2, First Half
June 5 – History – Overview of Bar Kokhba Revolt
June 8 – Chapter 2, Second Half
June 11 – Book Review: The Roman Cavalry & The Roman Army at War 100 BC – AD 200
June 14 – Chapter 3, First Half

Thank you for your interest and I hope you come back often,

Jim Branch

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Chapter 1, First Half

Chapter 1 

We were galloping along a ridge when the rain began to fall.  It was late afternoon. A thick fog was forming in the lower valleys and the sky was heavy with clouds.  The spring rain was cold but it provided some relief from the day’s ride and the stiff leather armor.  The horses thundered along the hillside as the sound of creaking saddles and loose saddlebags mixed with the steady beat of the hooves.

There were sixteen of us, half the unit, led by Speratus, our decurion and commanding officer.  His red cloak billowed in the wind as conspicuous as a rooster’s crest.  He drew his sword and waved it in the air to get our attention.  Still at a full gallop, he pointed off to the north just below the horizon.  I was the duplicarius, second in command, and in the back keeping the men in line.  Through the mist, I could barely make out a cart being pulled by a mule with a handful of men walking alongside.  We turned our mounts off the ridge and down the steep slope.  The horses jumped and slid to keep their footing on the muddy ground.  When I looked up again the men with the cart were running and whipping the mule to go faster.  They were heading for the tree line and a small opening in the brush where the trail disappeared into the woods.  We urged the horses into a full gallop across the plain between us and the brigands. We dodged stumps and mud holes left from when the forest was cleared for timber and firewood.  The cart was in the woods by the time we reached the opening and the trail was little more than a muddy stream.

We barreled into the narrow opening.  I leaned close to Tempest and cut away branches and briars with my sword.  What little sunlight there was disappeared, and my eyes slowly adjusted to the dark woods.  Not more than a couple hundred feet ahead of us, I saw a bright spot in the thick canopy.  The ruts left by the cart led into a clearing. We rode into the glen, and Speratus swung his sword above his head instructing us to fan out.  The clearing was encircled by bunches of blackberries and other thorny shrubs.  The mule stood harnessed to the cart in the center of the meadow munching on the wet grass, oblivious to the horses.

Our six archers readied arrows and scanned the woods beyond the underbrush.  We knew it was an ambush, but it was going to take more than a bunch of muddy brigands to defeat fully trained, Roman cavalry.  For a moment everything was silent except the heavy breathing of the horses.  The rain had died to a light drizzle, and the woods beyond the clearing were dark and full of mist.  I heard the bow creak before I saw the first arrow.  I turned Tempest toward its source and jabbed my heels into her sides.  We lurched forward. My shield protected my head and torso.  Guttural screams echoed off the trees. Arrows whizzed by in all directions, and my shield shuddered as they stuck in the wood.  I urged Tempest toward the edge of the clearing.  She vaulted over the brambles. Thorns cut her belly, as she crashed to the other side.  Landing outside the clearing, I saw two men drawing their next arrows, one on either side of me.  I swung my sword at the one on the right splintering his bow and knocking him back.  The other one ran for cover giving me the advantage.  Using the bottom of my shield, I opened a bloody gash on the back of his head.  He stumbled and fell to the ground.

Before I could pull up, a giant of a man charged out from behind a large oak.  He was bare-chested and standing his ground.  He swung a large axe and screamed like a banshee.  The axe sunk deep into Tempest’s chest.  She rolled forward tossing me out of the saddle.  I used my shield to ease the fall and rolled away from the madman, but before I could get up, the axe was slicing toward me.  On one knee, I held up my shield and braced myself.  The axe caught the edge of my shield and ripped it off my arm leaving a long red burn from my elbow to my wrist.  The axe came at me again.  I rolled to the side.  It clipped my scale armor and sunk into the forest floor.  I slashed back wildly managing to nick him in the side.  In one motion he ripped the axe from the ground and swung it again.  I jumped back hitting a tree. The axe came within inches of my face and sprayed me with mud.  Continuing the motion, he brought the axe over his head and with both hands brought it down toward my skull.  I dropped to the ground; the axe sunk into the tree.  His abdomen exposed, I drove my sword into his chest under his ribs.  His expression shifted from rage to surprise, as he looked down at my sword.  He let go of the axe with his left hand and grabbed my shoulder.  The bastard was strong. I couldn’t pull away.  The surprise left his eyes, and his right hand reached for a large knife at his waist.  He raised the knife above his head.  Instead of trying to get away, I pushed my sword up to the hilt.  The point came out his back, and he slumped over.  He stunk of sweat and dung, and I twisted to the side to slough him off.  He fell to the ground like he was made of lead.

Remembering the other archer, I turned to look for him.  He was standing on the other side of Tempest looking down at the dead man with a dumb look on his face.  Before I could stand up and straighten my armor, he turned and bolted into the woods.  He had no armor and no weapons besides the broken bow.  He would easily outrun me, so I picked up a dead branch off the ground and threw it at his legs.  I got lucky.  It caught him behind the knees, and he fell into the underbrush.  I had my sword at his back before he could stand.  He rolled over to face me, and I realized that he was not more than sixteen, no older than my eldest son.