Diaspora Revolt

This article is about the Jewish revolt across several provinces. For the revolt in Judaea, see Kitos War.

Diaspora Revolt Second Jewish–Roman War
Part of the Jewish–Roman wars
Provinces of the Roman Empire involved in the Diaspora Revolt (117 CE)
Date 115–117 CE Location Diaspora Revolt: Egypt Cyrenaica Cyprus Mesopotamia Kitos War: Judaea Result Roman victory with the revolt being quelled Ethnic cleansing of Jews in Egypt, Cyrenaica and Cyprus Halt of further Roman expansion to the east
Belligerents
Roman Empire Local populations	Jewish rebels, primarily in: Egypt Cyrenaica Cyprus Mesopotamia Judaea
Commanders and leaders
Trajan # Hadrian Marcius Turbo Lusius Quietus	Lukuas (Andreas) Artemio

The term "Diaspora Revolt" (115–117 CE, Hebrew: מרד הגלויות, romanized: mered ha-galuyot, or מרד התפוצות, mered ha-tfutzot, 'rebellion of the diaspora'; Latin: Tumultus Iudaicus), also known as the Trajanic Revolt and sometimes as the Second Jewish–Roman War, refers to a series of uprisings launched by Jewish diaspora communities across the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire during the final years of Trajan's reign. Hostilities began while Trajan was engaged in his Parthian campaign in Mesopotamia, creating a favorable opportunity for rebellion. Ancient sources do not specify the motivations, but they were likely shaped by the Roman destruction of the Second Temple during the First Jewish Revolt in 70 CE, long-standing tensions between Jews and Greeks, the Fiscus Judaicus tax, messianic expectations, and hopes for a return to Judaea.

The Jewish uprisings broke out almost simultaneously across several provinces of the eastern Roman Empire. In Egypt, Libya and Cyprus, rebel attacks were directed mainly against local populations rather than Roman authorities, with ancient authors such as Cassius Dio and Eusebius, as well as epigraphic evidence, reporting extreme violence, including mass killings and the destruction of temples. By contrast, the revolt in Mesopotamia appears to have formed part of a broader local resistance to Roman expansion into Parthian territories.

Marcius Turbo, one of Trajan's top generals, was dispatched with both land and naval forces to suppress the uprisings in Egypt and Libya. Literary sources suggest that the Jewish population in these regions faced severe reprisals and devastation. Meanwhile, General Lusius Quietus quelled the rebellion in Mesopotamia and was subsequently appointed governor of Judaea. It was during this time that the lesser-known and poorly understood Kitos War unfolded, seemingly involving Jewish unrest in Judaea. The diaspora uprisings were likely suppressed before autumn 117, possibly as early as summer of that year, just prior to Trajan's death; however, some unrest may have persisted into the winter of 117–118.

The Diaspora Revolt appears to have led to the devastation or annihilation of Jewish communities in Egypt, Libya, and other regions. Significant damage to buildings, temples, and roads is attested especially in Cyrene and other parts of Cyrenaica. A festival celebrating victory over the Jews was still being observed eighty years later in the Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus. Fifteen years after these uprisings, the Bar Kokhba revolt erupted, marking the last major Jewish attempt to regain independence in Judaea. After its failure, the Jewish population in Judaea was greatly reduced, and the community's center shifted to Galilee. In the Diaspora, the largest Jewish communities were now concentrated in Parthian Mesopotamia and Roman-ruled Asia Minor and Italy.

Primary sources

The available sources on the Diaspora Revolt are limited, fragmented, and incomplete, making it difficult for historians to reconstruct a comprehensive account of the events. The principal sources, Cassius Dio and Eusebius, offer only brief coverage, and only a few other, less detailed literary references survive. Scholars therefore rely on archaeological evidence, including ancient documents and inscriptions, to supplement and clarify the limited textual record.

Cassius Dio (c. 155 – c. 235), a Roman historian and senator, addresses the revolt in his Roman History; his narrative survives, however, only through a 12th-century abridgment by the Byzantine scholar Xiphilinus. Dio's account provides the most detail on the events in Cyrene, while offering only brief mention of Cyprus and a passing reference to Egypt. This account attributes responsibility for the uprisings to the Jewish population. Dio also records the Roman suppression of unrest in Mesopotamia, though he does not explicitly identify a Jewish role in that region. Scholars disagree on the extent of changes and bias introduced by the abridgment: Classicist Timothy Barnes suggested that Xiphilinus's anti-Jewish sentiment may have influenced and distorted the original text, whereas historian Lester L. Grabbe argued that "there is no reason to assume that it has been extensively distorted or rewritten, only shortened by omission."

Additional descriptions of the revolt come from Eusebius (c. 260–339 CE), a bishop and scholar from late-antique Syria Palaestina, who discusses it in his Chronicon and Ecclesiastical History, works generally considered reliable sources. His account centers on the uprisings in Egypt, with additional references to a Jewish rebellion in Mesopotamia and events in Cyprus. Eusebius notes that Greek historians provide accounts of the revolt similar to his, though he appears unaware of Cassius Dio's version, which puts greater emphasis on violent atrocities; In contrast, Eusebius adopts a more neutral tone. Nonetheless, his portrayal of the revolt is framed within his broader theological argument that Jewish suffering was a consequence of their rejection of Christ, a theme common in early Christian references to the Jewish–Roman wars.

Appian (c. 95 – c. 165), an Egyptian-born Greek historian and lawyer, provides a first-person account of the revolt in the surviving portions of his Roman History. Among several anecdotes, he recounts his narrow escape from capture, fleeing a Jewish ship via wilderness paths and boat near Pelusium, and describes the destruction of the Pompey monument near Alexandria by Jewish rebels. His neutral tone is similar to that of Eusebius, who is believed to have used Appian as a source. Also active in the second century, Arrian, a Greek author, wrote a now-lost work on the Parthians that reportedly included references to Trajan's actions against the Jews, and is believed to have been used as a source by Eusebius.

A much later source on the Diaspora Revolt is Paulus Orosius (c. 375 – after 418), a Christian Roman historian and theologian, who discusses the events in his Seven Books Against the Pagans, composed around 418 CE. Orosius saw the Jewish uprisings as divine punishment—a plague upon Rome—resulting from its persecution of Christians. His narrative draws on Eusebius, likely via Latin translations by Jerome and Rufinus, though Orosius rearranges the material and adopts a more vivid, dramatic rhetorical style. His account's reliability has been questioned due to chronological and historical inaccuracies, and, according to Judaic scholar William Horbury, his version is derivative, lacking immediacy and "vague" in its presentation.

The uprisings in Egypt are also documented by papyrological evidence, especially texts in the Corpus Papyrorum Judaicarum (CPJ), a collection of papyri relating to Jews and Judaism in Egypt. These documents illuminate the revolt's chronology, casualties, impact, and aftermath, and show, for example, that local Egyptians fought against the Jews rather than supporting them, as was suggested earlier. Archaeological and epigraphic evidence also clarifies the events in Cyprus and Cyrenaica, with Latin and Greek inscriptions from Cyrenaica recording the reconstruction of buildings damaged during the "Jewish uprising," thereby revealing the scale of destruction and subsequent rebuilding programs.

The Diaspora Revolt also finds echoes in rabbinic literature composed in later centuries, based on earlier oral traditions. The Jerusalem Talmud, a rabbinic compilation redacted in Galilee during the 4th–5th centuries CE, refers to the revolt in tractate Sukkah 5:1, which preserves three stories about it, including accounts of the destruction of the Great Synagogue of Alexandria and the massacre of Jews by Trajan. These narratives, which focus on Roman actions rather than the Greeks or Egyptians, were likely influenced by the heightened anti-Roman sentiment following the Bar Kokhba revolt, which occurred about fifteen years later and had disastrous consequences for the Jews of Judaea. While the stories contain historical kernels, they also incorporate legendary elements that limit their reliability as strict historical sources. Nonetheless, these sources reflect contemporary rabbinic debates about Jewish life in the diaspora in the aftermath of the Jewish–Roman wars, highlight hostilities and tensions between Jews and Romans, and reveal continuing hope for the coming of the Messiah among the Jews of Judaea.

Background

Depiction of the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, 70 CE. This event contributed to the sense of unrest and messianic expectations that played a significant role in the Diaspora Revolt

The motivations behind the diaspora uprisings are complex and difficult to discern, owing to the lack of direct sources on their underlying causes. The Roman destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE, at the height of the First Jewish Revolt, was a deeply traumatic event whose effect was exacerbated by the simultaneous introduction of the Fiscus Judaicus, a humiliating, punitive tax imposed on all Jews across the empire. The post-revolt period also saw widespread messianic expectations—a belief in the imminent coming of a redeemer, a descendant of David, who would bring transformative change and restore the Davidic kingdom in Israel—as well as a longing for the re-establishment of the Jewish state. Contemporary Jewish texts such as the Third Sibylline Oracle, 4 Ezra, and 2 Baruch reflect these themes, emphasizing anticipation of a messianic figure, the ingathering of the exiles (the biblical promise that Jews dispersed in exile will be restored to their ancestral land) and the eventual rebuilding of the Temple. The messianic aspect of the revolt is perhaps suggested by Eusebius referring to Lukuas, the leader of the Jewish rebels in Libya, as "king", suggesting that the uprising evolved from an ethnic conflict into a nationalist movement with messianic ambitions for political independence.

Inter-ethnic tensions and local conditions also fueled the unrest, especially in Egypt, where longstanding social, economic, political, and ideological frictions between Jews and Greeks had intensified since the third century BCE. The situation deteriorated under Roman rule, leading to sporadic violence in various eastern cities, including severe riots in Alexandria in 29 BCE, 38 CE, 41 CE, and 66 CE. The Jewish defeat in the First Jewish Revolt amplified hostility toward the Jews of Egypt, leading to their violent exclusion from civic positions and the imposition of higher business fees. It also intensified anti-Jewish rhetoric in Egypt, greatly exacerbating tensions between Jews and Egyptians. In the years leading up to the Diaspora Revolt, incidents of anti-Jewish violence by Greeks occurred in 112 and the summer of 115 CE. These attacks, especially the latter, were likely direct catalysts for the Jewish uprising in Egypt. In Libya, earlier disturbances in 73 CE, which resulted in the deaths and dispossession of many wealthy Jews, may have weakened the moderating influence of the Jewish elite, allowing more radical elements in Jewish society to gain prominence and push for revolt. Additionally, the destruction of the Jewish landholding aristocracy exacerbated economic hardships for Jewish tenant farmers, pushing them into cities and worsening their plight.

William Horbury wrote that the revolt was influenced by a strong national hope and local interpretations of messianic expectations, particularly the return of the exiles and the rebuilding of the Temple. He added that Jews in the diaspora may have been influenced by the ideals of "liberty" and "redemption," which were central to the First Jewish Revolt and spread to communities in Egypt, Cyrene, and possibly Cyprus through refugees and traders from Judaea in its aftermath. This idea is supported by Josephus' account of Jews belonging to the radical Sicarii faction who migrated to Cyrene after the war, the discovery of First Jewish Revolt coinage in Memphis and near Cyrene, and traces of these themes in diasporic literature.

Classicist E. Mary Smallwood suggested that the revolutionary movement during the Diaspora Revolt can be viewed as an early form of Zionism, seeking the return of Jewish exiles from North Africa to Palestine. The advance of the Cyrenaican Jews into Egypt, marked by widespread destruction, may have been intended as the initial phase of this large-scale migration. Archaeologist Shimon Applebaum wrote that the movement aimed at "the setting up of a new Jewish commonwealth, whose task was to inaugurate the messianic era." Biblical scholar and historian John M. G. Barclay likewise argued that the extensive damage to Cyrenaica's infrastructure during the uprising implies that the Jews involved intended to leave the province, probably aiming ultimately to reach Judaea. Horbury similarly concludes that the Jewish forces likely aimed to return to and defend Judaea.

Uprisings

The Jewish uprisings erupted almost simultaneously across several eastern provinces of the Roman Empire. In Egypt, Libya, and Cyprus, Jewish actions were directed primarily against local populations rather than Roman authorities. By contrast, the rebellion in Mesopotamia appears to have been part of a broader resistance to Roman expansion into areas ruled by the Parthian Empire. There is no evidence that Jewish communities in Asia Minor participated in the revolt, and the Jewish community in Rome also did not join the uprising. Eusebius links the revolts in Libya and Egypt, while late Syriac sources mention Jews from Egypt fleeing to Judaea. However, there is no definitive evidence of coordinated action among the diaspora communities in revolt.

Libya

In Libya, Jewish rebels launched attacks against their Greek and Roman neighbors, led either by Andreas (according to Dio/Xiphilinus) or Lukuas (according to Eusebius). These could have been two separate individuals or a single person known by both names—a common practice at the time. Eusebius refers to Lukuas as "king", a title that has prompted some scholars to suggest a possible messianic motivation behind the uprising, though evidence supporting this theory remains limited. Eusebius writes that the Jews of Libya collaborated with the Jews of Egypt, forming a symmachia (military alliance). He also mentions that, at one point, the Jews of Libya moved into Egypt.

The ruins of Cyrene, Libya. The city's center was extensively damaged during the revolt, with public baths, the Caesareum, and several temples destroyed.

Dio's account describes the Jews of Libya as engaging in shockingly violent and cruel behavior. They are said to have engaged in cannibalism, mutilation, and other atrocities, including using the victims' skins and entrails to make clothing and belts, and staging gladiatorial and wild beast shows. Dio reports that the Jewish rebels in Cyrenaica were responsible for approximately 220,000 deaths, though this figure is likely exaggerated for rhetorical effect. The 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia noted that "(Dio's) descriptions of the cruelties perpetrated by the Jews at Cyrene and on the island of Cyprus are probably exaggerated." Likewise, Historian Miriam Pucci Ben Zeev argued that this portrayal should be viewed within the broader context of how "barbarian" revolts against Rome were typically described in contemporary historiography, adding that the atrocities Dio attributes to the Jews are no more egregious than those he ascribes to the Britons during the Boudican revolt in 61 CE or to the Bucoli, a group of Nile Delta herdsmen, during their uprising in Egypt in 171 CE.

Archaeological evidence points to extensive destruction in Cyrenaica attributed to Jewish rebels. Inscriptions record attacks on religious and civic structures, including temples and statues. At Cyrene, for instance, the sanctuary of Apollo and its surroundings saw the destruction and burning of the baths, porticoes, ball-courts, and other nearby buildings; the temple of Hecate was burned down during the uprising, and significant damage is also recorded at the Caesareum and the temple of Zeus. Classicist Joyce Reynolds notes significant damage to the sanctuary of Asclepius at Balagrae, west of Cyrene, which was later rebuilt under the Antonine dynasty. The destruction of a small second-century temple near modern El Dab'a in Marmarica is likely also attributable to the Jewish rebels.

Damage is also attested along major roads, possibly resulting from deliberate rebel strategy. A Hadrianic milestone commemorates the repair of the road linking Cyrene with its port, Apollonia, "which had been overturned and smashed up in the Jewish revolt," possibly in anticipation of a Roman military advance from the sea. The presence of a deeply incised seven-branched menorah, a prominent Jewish symbol, on a road northwest of Balagrae may indicate, according to Reynolds, that Jews deliberately sought to disrupt the route connecting Cyrene with neighboring regions to the west. Bishop Synesius, a native of Cyrene writing in the early 5th century, still refers to the devastation caused by the Jews four centuries after the revolt.

Egypt

The uprising in Egypt is often believed to have started around October 115 CE, based on papyrus CPJ II 435, which mentions a conflict between Jews and Greeks. Pucci Ben Zeev, however, contends that this document actually describes Greek attacks on Jews, rather than the beginning of a Jewish uprising, and prefers to date the revolt's start to 116. Evidence from ostraca found in the Jewish quarter of Edfu, in Upper Egypt, indicates that tax receipts for Jews paying the Fiscus Judaicus cease by the end of May 116, suggesting this date as the earliest possible start for the revolt in that city. The latest possible date for the revolt's start is the beginning of September 116, as indicated by CPJ II 436, a concerned letter from the wife of the strategos (military leader) Apollonios in Hermoupolis, a major city between Lower and Upper Egypt.

According to Eusebius, unrest in Egypt arose when Jewish communities, seized by a spirit of discord (stasis), engaged in civil conflict with their Greek neighbors. This unrest was soon followed by the advance of Jewish forces from Cyrene, led by Lukuas, who then achieved an initial victory over the Greeks. The Greeks escaped to Alexandria, massacring its Jewish population. Lukuas's forces, supported by Egyptian Jews who rallied to his side, continued to plunder the Egyptian countryside (chora) and destroy various districts throughout the country. Papyrological evidence indicates that the revolt indeed affected extensive areas, including the Athribite district, the region around Memphis (noted for its long-standing antisemitism), the Faiyum, Oxyrhynchus, and the Herakleopolite district. Further south, fighting also impacted the Kynopolite, Hermopolite, Lycopolite, and Apollinopolite districts. It seems that the Jewish forces were well-organized and capable of presenting serious military challenges to their adversaries; as they moved through Egyptian villages, they quickly overcame local resistance.

Appian writes that the Jews destroyed the shrine of Nemesis, the Greek goddess of retribution, near Alexandria. He writes that this was done "for the needs of the war," suggesting an effort to remove a strategic point of advantage for the enemy, possibly by reusing the stone to strengthen Jewish defenses. Since the shrine housed the buried head of Pompey, its destruction may also have been motivated by a desire to avenge his desecration of the Temple during his conquest of Jerusalem in 63 BCE. This attack, together with other assaults on pagan temples in Egypt and Cyrenaica, may help explain the description of "impious Jews" found in some papyri.

Appian notes that the Jews seized control of waterways near Pelusium, located at the eastern edge of the Nile Delta, a region of critical strategic value. Further evidence of military activity in Egypt's waterways is found in another papyrus, CPJ II 441, and in a 7th-century chronicle by Coptic bishop John of Nikiû. The latter mentions the Babylon Fortress, a fort situated at the entrance of Amnis Traianus, a canal constructed under Trajan which facilitated connections between the Nile and the Red Sea.

Papyri indicate that the Greeks, led by strategoi, retaliated against the Jews, with assistance from Egyptian peasants and Romans. Prefect Rutilius Lupus is noted to have personally participated in these engagements. Some efforts were successful, as evidenced by the recorded "victory and success" of Apollonios near Memphis; however, due to many Roman forces being deployed in Mesopotamia, the remaining troops, including the Legio XXII Deiotariana and part of the Legio III Cyrenaica, were insufficient to restore order effectively.

Cyprus

Most of what is known about the events in Cyprus comes from literary sources, since the epigraphic evidence is limited, indirect, and difficult to interpret. Dio reports that the local Jewish rebels were led by an individual named Artemion. Eusebius's Chronicon states that the Jews attacked the island's pagan inhabitants and destroyed the major port city of Salamis. Both pagan and Christian sources describe the revolt as having heavy casualties, with Dio claiming that "two hundred and forty thousand perished" in Cyprus and Orosius asserting that "all the Greek inhabitants of Salamis were killed."

Suppression

According to Eusebius, Trajan sent Marcius Turbo, one of his leading generals, "with land and sea forces including cavalry. He waged war vigorously against them in many battles for a considerable time and killed many thousands of Jews, not only those of Cyrene but also those of Egypt." According to Judaic scholar Allen Kerkeslager, Trajan diverted Marcius Turbo from the Parthian front because the Jewish uprisings threatened the stability of the Roman Empire by disrupting grain shipments, a threat that had to be addressed.

Turbo arrived in Egypt in late 116 or early 117. He was likely accompanied by the cohors (tactical unit) I Ulpia Afrorum equitata and the cohors I Augusta praetoria Lusitanorum equitata, both present in Egypt in 117 CE, with the latter suffering heavy losses during the early summer of the same year. One papyrus details plans to mobilize large forces, including fleets from the Italian ports of Misenum and Ravenna, the Legio III Cyrenaica, and auxiliary units such as the cohors I Flavia Cilicum equitata. Legio XXII Deiotariana and Legio III Cyrenaica fought against the Jews, with the names of specific Roman legionaries from these units recorded as being killed in combat. Native Egyptians and Greeks, driven by entrenched anti-Jewish sentiments intensified by wartime conditions and imperial support, eagerly joined the Romans in attacking Jews. The early severe losses suffered by the Roman military had resulted in the conscription of locals into the army, and the presence of seasoned Roman troops, eager for retribution, further exacerbated the violence.

Turbo's mission seemingly included not only quelling the revolt but also exterminating Jews in the affected areas. Roman repression was severe, with Appian describing it as an extermination of the Jewish population in Egypt, and Arian noting that Trajan asked "to destroy the nation entirely, but if not, at least to crush it and stop its presumptuous wickedness." Turbo's military actions may have extended to Libya, where a Roman praefectus castrorum was killed. In Cyprus, the suppression of the Jewish revolt was led by Gaius Valerius Rufus, one of Trajan's generals. The military actions there may also corroborate the Babylonian Talmud's story, according to which the blood of Jews killed in Egypt reached as far as Cyprus.

Scholarly debate surrounds the precise end date of the Jewish uprising. Pucci Ben Zeev argues that the revolt was likely suppressed before autumn 117, and possibly by summer, prior to Trajan's death. The reassignment of Marcius Turbo to Mauretania following Hadrian's accession as emperor in August 117 appears to support this timeline. However, historians Noah Hacham and Tal Ilan point to evidence suggesting more prolonged unrest. In CPJ 664c, a letter dated 20 December 117, a woman named Eudaimonis urged her son Apollonios, the strategos of Heptakomia, to remain in his secure residence—a warning that hints at persistent danger. This correspondence, along with a subsequent letter concerning the same family, suggests that instability continued in some areas into the winter of 117–118 CE.

Related events

Events in Mesopotamia

The scarcity of literary sources documenting Roman violence against Jews in Mesopotamia, which became a Roman province during Trajan's Parthian campaign around 115 CE, has sparked scholarly debate over whether a distinct Jewish revolt occurred in this region—comparable to those in other provinces—or if Jewish resistance was part of a broader anti-Roman uprising within the conquered Parthian territories. Eusebius's Chronicon reports that Trajan suspected the Jews in Mesopotamia "would also attack the inhabitants", prompting him to send General Lusius Quietus to suppress them harshly. Eusebius further notes that Quietus "murdered a great number of the Jews there." Later Christian sources also describe a military campaign led by Quietus against the Jews.

In contrast, Cassius Dio's account does not mention a Jewish uprising or a campaign against Jews in Mesopotamia. Instead, Dio refers to a broader rebellious movement in the region during the summer of 116 CE, where Quietus was one of several generals charged by Trajan to suppress the revolts, recovering Nisibis and besieging and sacking Edessa, both in northern Mesopotamia. The Jews are not mentioned in this context; while Dio does provide a brief reference to Quietus subduing the Jews, this reference is made in the context of the revolts in Egypt, Cyprus, and Cyrenaica, without specifying a geographic location. Pucci Ben Zeev suggested that the sources describing Jewish resistance in Mesopotamia are likely part of a broader resistance in the Parthian territories occupied by the Romans, probably driven by the Jews' relatively favorable position within the Parthian Empire, which contrasted with their harsher treatment under Roman rule.

The "Kitos War" in Judaea

Further information: Kitos War

The question of whether the Diaspora Revolt also spread to the province of Judaea remains debated in modern scholarship. Some researchers use the term "Kitos War" (or "war of Qitos/Quietus", after Lusius Quietus) to refer to this possible unrest in Judaea, following passages in rabbinic literature that date a "war of Quietus" to fifty-two years after the destruction of the Second Temple and sixteen years before the Bar Kokhba revolt, which places it roughly at the time of the Diaspora Revolt; these sources also mention new Jewish bans, enacted after the war, prohibiting brides from wearing crowns at their weddings and fathers from teaching their sons Greek. However, rabbinic texts do not explicitly associate this "war of Quietus" with Judaea and may instead refer to Quietus's suppression of Jewish uprisings in Mesopotamia rather than to disturbances in Judaea itself. Moreover, unlike the Bar Kokhba revolt, which left clear and widespread destruction identifiable in the archaeological record, no comparable level of devastation in Judaea can be securely attributed to the Diaspora Revolt.

In non-Jewish sources, there are several indications that some military activity did occur in or around Judaea during this period. After the war in Mesopotamia, Lusius Quietus was appointed governor of Judaea and likely brought additional forces with him, likely including a vexillatio (temporary detachment) of Legio III Cyrenaica. An inscription from Sardinia lists an expeditio Judaeae among Trajan's military campaigns, and medieval Syriac sources mention unrest in Judaea, claiming that Jews from Egypt and Libya were defeated there by Roman forces. It is possible that tensions were exacerbated by Roman cult activity: Hippolytus reports (in a fragment preserved in Syriac) that "Traianus Quintos," possibly Quietus, set up a statue of kore (Persephone) in Jerusalem, while an inscription records soldiers of Legio III Cyrenaica dedicating an altar or statue to Serapis in the city during Trajan's final year. Nevertheless, the lateness of the Syriac sources, and the fact that the main primary accounts of the revolt do not mention hostilities in Judaea, make these indications uncertain.

Some scholars have also linked the Talmudic legends of Lulianos and Paphos, two wealthy Jewish brothers, from "the pride of Israel", who are said to have been executed in Laodicea (or, in some versions, Lydda), and taken them as evidence of hostilities in Judaea. These stories, which appear in several passages in rabbinic literature, are, however, vague and often mutually contradictory. They also pose historical difficulties, since they portray Trajan as a kind of Roman governor in Judaea who is himself executed. In Ecclesiastes Rabbah, Lulianos and Paphos are condemned to death by Trajan for an unknown offence but are saved at the last moment when two officials arrive from Rome and put Trajan to death. In the Babylonian Talmud, Trajan executes the brothers shortly before being executed himself. The Jerusalem Talmud connects their execution with the abolition of a festival called "the day of Tirion/Turianus" ("Trajan's Day"), mentioned in several rabbinic passages as a minor feast celebrated on 12 Adar (February/March), whereas the parallel passage in the Babylonian Talmud instead connects the abolition with two other figures executed on that day.

E. Mary Smallwood argued that there may be a historical core behind these legends, suggesting that Lulianos and Paphos were leaders of a local Jewish rising in Judaea that was suppressed by Quietus. In her view, the "Trajan" who appears in the story is possibly a distorted echo of Quietus, who is known to have been killed, perhaps on Hadrian's orders, not long after his governorship in Judaea. Historian Aharon Oppenheimer, drawing on Genesis Rabbah, noted that their activity is associated with both Galilee and Syria and takes this as an indication of Jewish unrest in Galilee during the Diaspora Revolt. Historian Moshe David Herr, however, contests this reconstruction, arguing that the rabbinic passages adduced by Oppenheimer cannot be securely dated to the time of the Diaspora Revolt and therefore do not provide firm evidence for a Kitos War in Judaea. Another historian, David Rokeah, likewise rejects the link between the two brothers and unrest in Galilee, noting that the Sifra, a rabbinic exegesis on Leviticus, describes them as being from Alexandria—something he takes to suggest that they were refugees from Egypt, possibly after taking part in the uprising there. According to Lester L. Grabbe, "the evidence for such [hostilities in Judaea] seems extremely skimpy and is indirect at best. It is possible that there were attempts at an uprising there, but, if so, they seem to have been quickly put down by the governor Quietus."

Aftermath

Destruction of Jewish communities

The suppression of the revolt saw a devastating campaign of ethnic cleansing, which effectively led to the near-total expulsion and annihilation of Jews from Cyrenaica, Cyprus, and many parts of Egypt. Historical evidence indicates that Jewish communities were either annihilated or forced into migration, with only a few survivors possibly remaining in isolated areas on the fringes of Roman control.

In Egypt, the Jewish community suffered near-total destruction during the revolt, an event historian Willy Clarysse characterized as a genocide. Appian reported that Trajan "was exterminating the Jewish race in Egypt," a claim corroborated by papyri and inscriptions documenting widespread devastation of Jewish populations across many regions. Jewish lands were confiscated, and Trajan implemented a new registry, the Ioudaikos logos, to catalog properties that had previously belonged to Jews. The Jewish community in Alexandria appears to have been entirely eradicated, with the only survivors likely being those who had fled to other regions at the onset of the uprising. The Jerusalem Talmud noted the destruction of the celebrated Great Synagogue of Alexandria, and the Jewish court in Alexandria might have been abolished. Horbury suggests that some Jewish refugees fled to Judaea, bringing with them stories about Egypt and Trajan, which were later preserved through rabbinic transmission. Others may have fled to Syria, where it is possible that works like 4 Maccabees were created by Alexandrian Jews who had resettled in the province's capital, Antioch.

After 117 CE, Jewish presence in Egypt and Libya virtually disappears from historical sources. No Jewish inscriptions from Egypt have been securely dated from the period following the revolt until the 4th century, and Egyptian papyri that mention Jews predominantly refer to isolated individuals rather than communities. In the Faiyum region, which previously had substantial Jewish communities, mid-2nd century tax records show only one Jew among a thousand adult males. Moreover, no Jewish tax receipts have been discovered in Edfu from after 116. It was not until the 3rd century that Jews re-established communities in Egypt, but they never regained their former influence.

In Cyrenaica, a gap in the evidence following the revolt suggests that the region was virtually depopulated of Jews due to their migration to Egypt and subsequent massacres by non-Jews. After the war ended, laws were placed ordering the exile of Jews from Cyrene, which historian Renzo De Felice said "reduced the flourishing [Jewish] community of Cyrene to insignificance and set it on the road to an inevitable decline." According to De Felice, many of the Jews expelled joined Berber tribes, particularly those around modern-day Sirte. A substantial Jewish community was not reestablished in Cyrenaica until the 4th century.

Cassius Dio reports that, even in his day in third-century Cyprus, "no Jew may set foot on that island, and even if one of them is driven upon the shores by a storm he is put to death." This claim is corroborated by archaeological evidence, which indicates no Jewish presence on the island until the 4th century.

Impact on the eastern provinces

In Egypt, the aftermath of the revolts caused agricultural decline, shortages of slave labor and textiles, and an economic crisis with unstable prices and a shortage of essentials like bread. Roman troops in Egypt suffered significant losses, with some units experiencing 30–40 percent casualties. Egypt's agricultural hinterlands were heavily impacted by the war, and many farmlands remained unrecovered and underproductive for decades. Despite this, census data do not show a major demographic disruption in the overall population.

Replica of a Roman milestone found at Shahhat, near Cyrene, with an inscription documenting the repair of a road damaged during the Jewish uprising, carried out under Hadrian

In Cyrenaica, there was significant damage to buildings, temples, and roads, especially in Cyrene, where the city's center was extensively destroyed. The physical destruction of the city was significant enough that Hadrian had to rebuild the city at the beginning of his reign, according to archaeological findings. Hadrianic inscriptions document the restoration of sites such as the baths by the Sanctuary of Apollo and the Caesareum. A letter from Hadrian to the citizens of Cyrene in 134/135 CE urged them to prevent their city from remaining in ruins. The Roman authorities initiated a large-scale recolonization of Cyrenaica after the destruction caused by the revolt, sending 3,000 veterans under the command of the prefect of Legio XV Apollinaris to settle in the region. Some of these veterans were stationed in Cyrene itself, while others were relocated to other sites, including the newly founded city of Hadrianopolis on the Mediterranean coast. Eusebius's Chronicon and Orosius report extensive destruction in Salamis and Alexandria, with Orosius noting that Libya would have remained depopulated without Hadrian's resettlement efforts:

The Jews [...] waged war on the inhabitants throughout Libya in the most savage fashion, and to such an extent was the country wasted that, its cultivators having been slain, its land would have remained utterly depopulated, had not Emperor Hadrian gathered settlers from other places and sent them thither, for the inhabitants had been wiped out.

In Alexandria, the damage was less extensive than Eusebius suggests, who claimed the city was "overthrown" and required rebuilding by Hadrian. The primary loss was the sanctuary of Nemesis. The Ptolemaic Serapeum and other structures were likely damaged later by Egyptian and Cyrenaican Jews, rather than by Alexandrian Jews.

The total destruction of Salamis has also been questioned, since it received the title of metropolis in 123, only a few years after the Jewish uprising, suggesting that not all damage was as severe as reported. Some Roman actions, such as Trajan's colony in Libya and Hadrian's edict improving conditions for the Egyptian peasantry, may likewise not be directly linked to the uprisings but instead reflect pre-existing circumstances.

Impact on Trajan's Parthian campaign

The simultaneous Jewish uprisings across various regions forced Trajan to divert his top military leaders from the Parthian front, impacting his campaign. The resistance in Mesopotamia, though ultimately unsuccessful in its siege of Hatra, led to a compromise with the Parthians and coincided with Trajan's illness and death. The siege of Hatra continued throughout the summer of 117, but the years of constant campaigning and reports of revolts had taken a toll on Trajan, who suffered a stroke resulting in partial paralysis. He decided to begin the long journey back to Rome to recover. As he sailed from Seleucia, his health deteriorated rapidly. He was taken ashore at Selinus in Cilicia, where he died. His successor, Hadrian, soon assumed power, reversing Trajan's approach by abandoning further imperial expansion.

Despite a triumph celebrated at his funeral, Trajan's Parthian campaign ended in failure and ensured that Babylonian Jews remained outside Roman control, as reflected in the Babylonian Talmud's assertion of their protection from Roman decrees: "The Holy One, blessed be He, knows that Israel is unable to endure the cruel decrees of Edom, therefore He exiled them to Babylonia".

Impact on Judaea and the Bar Kokhba revolt

In the aftermath of the Diaspora Revolt, Roman authorities tightened their control over Judaea, increasing the military presence and reorganizing the province's administration. With Hadrian's accession to the throne following Trajan's death in 117 CE, Quietus was dismissed from his role in Judaea and replaced by Marcus Titius Lustricus Bruttianus. Around the same time, a second legion, Legio II Traiana Fortis, was stationed in the province. This raised the permanent garrison to two legions and elevated Judaea from a praetorian to consular province. By around 120, milestones attest to the construction of a new Roman road securing the key corridor linking Judaea, Galilee, Egypt, and Syria; Caparcotna in Galilee was also integrated into this network and developed into a Roman base of operations. The Romans further consolidated their grip on Judaea by settling loyal populations, including discharged legionaries, in the province. According to historian Martin Goodman, this growing military build‑up indicates Roman anxiety about the possibility of another uprising in Judaea, despite the reluctance of local Jews to join the recent revolts in the diaspora.

In approximately 130, Hadrian visited Judaea and decided to rebuild Jerusalem as the Roman colony of Aelia Capitolina. This decision, together with a possible imperial ban on circumcision, a key Jewish practice, was among the immediate triggers of the Bar Kokhba revolt, the final major Jewish uprising against Roman rule and the last serious attempt to restore Jewish independence in the Land of Israel until the modern era. According to Goodman, Hadrian—an activist emperor who preferred to impose reforms rather than merely react to crises—was acutely aware of the disastrous consequences of the Diaspora Revolt, as indicated by his post-revolt construction projects in Cyrenaica. Goodman argues that Hadrian's decision to refound Jerusalem as Aelia Capitolina was intended as a "final solution for Jewish rebelliousness": by permanently transforming the Jewish holy city into a Roman colonia modeled on the imperial capital, Hadrian aimed to prevent future Jewish uprisings. Archaeologist Hanan Eshel also points to a rise in nationalistic sentiment, possibly fueled by the Diaspora Revolt, as one of the motivations behind the revolt.

Under the leadership of Simon bar Kokhba, the Jews initially succeeded in establishing a short-lived independent state. The Roman response, however, was a massive and methodical military campaign that crushed the revolt by 135. The suppression brought widespread devastation to Judaea: extensive destruction, mass death, displacement, enslavement, and harsh punitive measures. Judaea's Jewish population was severely reduced, and the principal Jewish center in the country shifted to Galilee. The province was renamed Syria Palaestina, and Jews appear to have faced new restrictions on religious practice. Within the Roman Empire, the most significant Jewish diaspora communities were now located in Asia Minor and Italy, while the largest Jewish populations were concentrated in central Mesopotamia, which were under Parthian and later Sasanian rule.

Influence on Jewish thought

In the Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael, a tannaitic exegesis on Exodus, the 'days of Trajan' are cited as the third instance in which the Torah's injunction against returning to Egypt was violated, resulting in three punishments:

In three places God warned Israel not to return to Egypt [...] Yet three times they returned, and three times they fell. The first was in the days of Sennacherib, as it is said, Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help. The second was in the days of Yohanan son of Kareah, as it is said, 'Then it shall come to pass that the word, which you fear shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt. The third time was in the days of Trajan. On these three occasions they returned, and on all three occasions they fell.

The reference to the calamity during Trajan's reign is more concise than the detailed accounts of the earlier violations, suggesting that the event was still vivid in the Jewish consciousness. According to this interpretation, the destruction of the community in Alexandria was a consequence of violating the prohibition against returning to Egypt, implying that every Jewish settlement in Egypt was a sin. While the Mekhilta does not identify the sage behind this saying, a parallel tradition in the Jerusalem Talmud attributes it to Shimon bar Yochai, a sage of the generation following the Bar Kokhba revolt, who, in numerous other sayings, emphasized the centrality of the Land of Israel. According to Noah Hacham, Bar Yochai's statement served a dual purpose: it aimed to explain to his contemporaries the destruction of the Jewish community in Egypt, while also reinforcing the notion that, despite the disastrous consequences of the Bar Kokhba revolt and subsequent distress, only the Land of Israel offered the hope of safety and salvation for the Jewish people. The Jerusalem Talmud, following bar Yochai's statement and before a description of the Great Synagogue of Alexandria and its destruction by Trajan, includes an amoraic passage (a rabbinic text dated between 200 and 500 CE) written in a blend of Hebrew and Aramaic, offering an explanation for Trajan's massacre of the Jews in Alexandria:

A son was born to him on the Ninth of Av (a Jewish fast day) and they did fast. His daughter died on Ḥanukkah (a Jewish holiday) and they lit lights. His wife sent and told him, instead that you conquer the barbarians come and conquer the Jews who revolted against you. He intended to come in ten days and came and found them occupied [in the Torah with the verse:] He will carry against you a people from far away, from the ends of the earth, etc. He asked them, with what were you occupied. They answered him, with such-and-such. He said to them, this man is he since he intended to come in ten days but came in five. He surrounded them by legions and killed them. He said to their wives, if you listen to my legions I shall not kill you. They told him, what you did to those on the ground floor do to those on the gallery. He mixed their blood with their blood and the blood flowed in the sea up to Cyprus. At that moment the horn of Israel was trimmed and will not be restituted until the Son of David will come.

The story highlights a stark contrast between the Jews and Rome: while the Emperor celebrates the birth of his son, the Jews fast in mourning; and when his daughter dies, the Jews rejoice with festive lights. Interpreting these acts as signs of rebellion, Trajan's wife persuades him to redirect his focus from the Parthian campaign to suppress the Jews. Though the story reflects historical facts, such as Trajan's diversion of troops from another war, it also contains fictional elements—Trajan is not known to have had children, nor is there evidence of his presence in Egypt during this time. The Torah passage cited in the story, referencing an enemy nation and in a later part, the eagle—a Roman symbol—identifies the biblical, prophesized oppressor with Rome.

Noah Hacham interprets the stories as reflecting a fundamental and irreconcilable conflict between Jews and Romans. The Ninth of Av, when Jews commemorate Rome's destruction of the Second Temple, coincides with Rome celebrating the continuity of its empire, while Hanukkah, marking the Temple's rededication, contrasts with the disruption of Roman continuity. Additionally, the Egyptian context casts Trajan as harsher than the biblical Pharaoh: the latter targeted male infants, whereas Trajan annihilated all. According to Hacham, these stories, put together in the Jerusalem Talmud, frame the destruction of Alexandria's Jewish community as part of a pattern of calamities endured by the Jewish people.

Another Jewish perspective on the aftermath of the uprising appears in a late 2nd-century rabbinic story attributed to Eleazar ben Jose. In this account, Eleazar visits Alexandria and is shown the bones of Jews buried beneath a building by an elderly local, who boasts that "some they drowned, some they slew with the sword, some they crushed beneath buildings [under construction]." The narrator applies this scene to the oppression of the Israelites in Egypt, but Horbury has argued that the attribution to Alexandria and the motif of construction over Jewish corpses are well suited to Jewish memories of the Diaspora Revolt, and that the story likely reflects what was considered plausible in late second-century Judaea rather than an actual eyewitness report.

Commemoration in Egypt

At Oxyrhynchus, a festival commemorating the victory over the Jews continued to be observed nearly 80 years later, around 200 CE, during the visit of Septimius Severus to Egypt, as documented in papyrus CPJ II 450:

The inhabitants of Oxyrhynchus possess the goodwill, faithfulness and friendship to the Romans, which they showed in the war against the Jews, fighting on your side. And even now they celebrate the day of victory as a festival day each year.

This celebration drew participants and spectators from diverse social groups, including Greco-Egyptian elites and local Egyptian peasants, suggesting its development within traditional Egyptian festival frameworks. Its annual occurrence linked it to the agricultural cycle of the period, highlighting its importance in the community.

David Frankfurter, a scholar of ancient religion, argues that the festival involved a ritual re-dramatization of the victory, portraying the Jews as Typhonians (followers of Set-Typhon) and their defeat as the triumph of Horus-Pharaoh, with their expulsion framed as a purification of the land. The Egyptian priesthood, who had previously recast the Greek Ptolemaic rulers as traditional pharaohs, apparently led these celebrations, continuing an earlier priestly tradition that had produced anti-Jewish polemics through figures like Manetho and Chaeremon.

See also

Jewish revolts against Rome

• History of the Jews in the Roman Empire
• Jewish–Roman wars
  • First Jewish–Roman War, 66–73 CE
  • Bar Kokhba revolt, 132–136 CE
• Kitos War – a minor revolt in Judaea at the time of the Diaspora revolt
• Jewish revolt against Constantius Gallus, 352 CE
• Jewish revolt against Heraclius, 614–617/625

Related topics

• Samaritan revolts, 484–572 CE
• List of conflicts in the Near East

References

Primary sources

Greco-Roman sources

• Appian (1912). Roman History – Civil Wars, Books 1–2. Loeb Classical Library: Appian. Vol. IV. Translated by White, Horace. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. OCLC 1163566479.
• Cassius Dio (1927) [c. 230]. Roman History, 68.32.1–3. Translated by Earnest Cary. Loeb Classical Library.

Christian sources

• Eusebius. Ecclesiastical History, 4.2.1-5.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Eusebius (1956) [c. 324]. Chronicon, 68.32. Translated by R. Helm. De Gruyter.
• Orosius. Seven Books Against the Pagans, 7.12.6–8.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

Rabbinic literature

• Babylonian Talmud, Sukkot 51b.
• Jerusalem Talmud, Sukkot, 5.1. Translated by Heinrich W. Guggenheimer. De Gruyter. 1999–2015 [late 4th/early 5th century CE].

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Further reading

Primary sources

• Appian. Roman History, Fr. 19.
• Cassius Dio. Roman History, 68.32.1–3.
• Eusebius. Chronicon.
• Eusebius. Ecclestial History, 4.2.1–5.
• Orosius. Seven Books of History Against the Pagans, 7.12.6–8.