Simon ben Koseba or Cosiba ( he, שִׁמְעוֹן בַּר כֹסֵבָא, translit= Šīmʾōn bar Ḵōsēḇaʾ ; died 135 CE), commonly known as Bar Kokhba ( he, שִׁמְעוֹן בַּר כּוֹכְבָא, translit=Šīmʾōn bar Kōḵḇāʾ ), was a Jewish military leader who led the
Bar Kokhba revolt against the
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...
in 132
CE. The revolt established a three-year-long independent Jewish state in which Bar Kokhba ruled as ''
nasi
Nasi may refer to:
Food Dishes
Nasi Goreng is an Indonesian and Malay word for ''cooked rice'', featured in many Southeast Asian dishes
*Nasi goreng, a popular rice dish often simply called ''nasi''
*Other Southeast Asian ''nasi'' dishes:
**Nasi ...
'' ("prince"). Some of the rabbinic scholars in his time imagined him to be the long-expected
Messiah
In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; ,
; ,
; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach ...
. Bar Kokhba fell in the fortified town of
Betar.
Name
Documented name
Documents discovered in the 20th century in the
Cave of Letters
The Cave of Letters is a cave in Nahal Hever in the Judean Desert where letters and fragments of papyri from the Roman Empire period were found. Some are related to the Bar Kokhba revolt (circa 131-136), including letters of correspondence betw ...
give his original name, with variations: Simeon bar Kosevah (), Bar Kosevaʾ () or Ben Kosevaʾ ().
It is probable that his original name was Bar Koseba.
The name may indicate that his father or his place of origin was named Koseva(h), with
Khirbet Kuwayzibah being a likely nominee for identification; Others, namely
Emil Schürer
Emil Schürer (2 May 184420 April 1910) was a German Protestant theologian known mainly for his study of the history of the Jews around the time of Jesus' ministry.
Biography
Schürer was born in Augsburg. After studying at the universities of Er ...
, think the surname may have been an indication of his place of birth, in the village known as Chozeba (maybe
Chezib) but might as well be a general family name.
Nicknames
During the revolt, the Jewish sage
Rabbi Akiva
Akiva ben Yosef (Mishnaic Hebrew: ''ʿĂqīvāʾ ben Yōsēf''; – 28 September 135 CE), also known as Rabbi Akiva (), was a leading Jewish scholar and sage, a '' tanna'' of the latter part of the first century and the beginning of the second c ...
regarded Simon as the
Jewish messiah
The Messiah in Judaism () is a savior and liberator figure in Jewish eschatology, who is believed to be the future redeemer of the Jewish people. The concept of messianism originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible a messiah is a king or ...
; the Talmud records his statement that the
Star Prophecy
The Star Prophecy (or Star and Scepter prophecy) is a Messianic reading applied by Jewish Zealots and early Christians to .
Bible narrative
Messianism
The prophecy was often employed during the troubled years that led up to the Jewish Revolt, ...
verse from
Numbers
A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers can ...
: "There shall come a star out of
Jacob
Jacob (; ; ar, يَعْقُوب, Yaʿqūb; gr, Ἰακώβ, Iakṓb), later given the name Israel, is regarded as a patriarch of the Israelites and is an important figure in Abrahamic religions, such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. J ...
" referred to him, based on identification of the Hebrew word for star, ''kokhav'', and his name, ''bar Kozeva.'' The name
Bar Kokhba
Simon ben Koseba or Cosiba ( he, שִׁמְעוֹן בַּר כֹסֵבָא, translit= Šīmʾōn bar Ḵōsēḇaʾ ; died 135 CE), commonly known as Bar Kokhba ( he, שִׁמְעוֹן בַּר כּוֹכְבָא, translit=Šīmʾōn bar ...
, which references this statement of Akiva, does not appear in the
Talmud
The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the ce ...
, but only in ecclesiastical sources, until the 16th century. The
Jerusalem Talmud
The Jerusalem Talmud ( he, תַּלְמוּד יְרוּשַׁלְמִי, translit=Talmud Yerushalmi, often for short), also known as the Palestinian Talmud or Talmud of the Land of Israel, is a collection of rabbinic notes on the second-century ...
(''Taanit'' 4:5) mentions him by the name of Bar Kozeva.
Revolt
Background
Despite the devastation wrought by the Romans during the
First Jewish–Roman War
The First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE), sometimes called the Great Jewish Revolt ( he, המרד הגדול '), or The Jewish War, was the first of three major rebellions by the Jews against the Roman Empire, fought in Roman-controlled ...
(66–73 CE), which left the population and countryside in ruins, a series of laws passed by Roman Emperors provided the incentive for the second rebellion. Based on the delineation of years in Eusebius'
''Chronicon'' (whose Latin translation is known as the Chronicle of
Jerome
Jerome (; la, Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος Σωφρόνιος Ἱερώνυμος; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was a Christian priest, confessor, theologian, and historian; he is co ...
) the Jewish revolt began under the Roman governor
Tineius (Tynius) Rufus in the 16th year of
Hadrian's reign, or what was equivalent to the 4th year of the 227th
Olympiad
An olympiad ( el, Ὀλυμπιάς, ''Olympiás'') is a period of four years, particularly those associated with the ancient and modern Olympic Games.
Although the ancient Olympics were established during Greece's Archaic Era, it was not unti ...
. Hadrian sent an army to crush the resistance, but it faced a strong opponent, since Bar Kokhba, as the recognised leader of Israel, punished any Jew who refused to join his ranks.
''Chronicle of Jerome'', s.v. Hadrian. See also Yigael Yadin, ''Bar-Kokhba'', Random House New York 1971, p. 258. Two and a half years later, after the war had ended, the Roman emperor Hadrian barred Jews from entering
Ælia Capitolina, the pagan city he had built on the ruins of Jewish Jerusalem. The name Aelia was derived from one of the emperor's names, Aelius.
According to
Philostorgius
Philostorgius ( grc-gre, Φιλοστόργιος; 368 – c. 439 AD) was an Anomoean Church historian of the 4th and 5th centuries.
Very little information about his life is available. He was born in Borissus, Cappadocia to Eulampia and Car ...
, this was done so that its former Jewish inhabitants "might not find in the name of the city a pretext for claiming it as their country."
Overview
For many Jews of the time, this turn of events was heralded as the long hoped for
Messianic Age
In Abrahamic religions, the Messianic Age is the future period of time on Earth in which the messiah will reign and bring universal peace and brotherhood, without any evil. Many believe that there will be such an age; some refer to it as the cons ...
. The Romans fared very poorly during the initial revolt facing a unified Jewish force, in contrast to the
First Jewish-Roman War
First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1).
First or 1st may also refer to:
*World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement
Arts and media Music
* 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...
, where
Flavius Josephus
Flavius Josephus (; grc-gre, Ἰώσηπος, ; 37 – 100) was a first-century Romano-Jewish historian and military leader, best known for '' The Jewish War'', who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea—to a father of priestly ...
records three separate Jewish armies fighting each other for control of the
Temple Mount
The Temple Mount ( hbo, הַר הַבַּיִת, translit=Har haBayīt, label=Hebrew, lit=Mount of the House f the Holy}), also known as al-Ḥaram al-Sharīf (Arabic: الحرم الشريف, lit. 'The Noble Sanctuary'), al-Aqsa Mosque compou ...
during the three weeks after the Romans had breached Jerusalem's walls and were fighting their way to the center. Being outnumbered and taking heavy casualties, the Romans adopted a
scorched earth policy which reduced and demoralised the Judean populace, slowly grinding away at the will of the Judeans to sustain the war.
During the final phase of the war, Bar Kokhba took up refuge in the fortress of
Betar. The Romans eventually captured it after laying siege to the city.
The Jerusalem Talmud makes several claims considered as non-historical by modern scholarship. One such claim is that the duration of the siege was of three and half years, although the war itself lasted, according to the same author, two and half years. Another part of the Talmudic narrative is that the Romans killed all the defenders except for one Jewish youth,
Simeon ben Gamliel
Simeon ben Gamliel (I) ( or רשב"ג הראשון; c. 10 BCE – 70 CE) was a '' Tanna'' sage and leader of the Jewish people. He served as nasi of the Great Sanhedrin at Jerusalem during the outbreak of the First Jewish–Roman War, succeedi ...
, whose life was spared. According to
Cassius Dio
Lucius Cassius Dio (), also known as Dio Cassius ( ), was a Roman historian and senator of maternal Greek origin. He published 80 volumes of the history on ancient Rome, beginning with the arrival of Aeneas in Italy. The volumes documented the ...
, 580,000 Jews were killed in overall war operations across the country, and some 50 fortified towns and 985 villages razed to the ground, while the number of those who perished by famine, disease and fire was past finding out.
Outcome and aftermath
So costly was the Roman victory, that the Emperor Hadrian, when reporting to the
Roman Senate
The Roman Senate ( la, Senātus Rōmānus) was a governing and advisory assembly in ancient Rome. It was one of the most enduring institutions in Roman history, being established in the first days of the city of Rome (traditionally founded in ...
, did not see fit to begin with the customary greeting "If you and your children are healthy, it is well; I and the legions are healthy."
In the aftermath of the war, Hadrian consolidated the older political units of
Judaea
Judea or Judaea ( or ; from he, יהודה, Standard ''Yəhūda'', Tiberian ''Yehūḏā''; el, Ἰουδαία, ; la, Iūdaea) is an ancient, historic, Biblical Hebrew, contemporaneous Latin, and the modern-day name of the mountainous so ...
,
Galilee and
Samaria
Samaria (; he, שֹׁמְרוֹן, translit=Šōmrōn, ar, السامرة, translit=as-Sāmirah) is the historic and biblical name used for the central region of Palestine, bordered by Judea to the south and Galilee to the north. The first ...
into the new province of
Syria Palaestina, which is commonly interpreted as an attempt to complete the disassociation with Judaea.
[
][Sharon, 1998, p. 4. According to ]Moshe Sharon
Moshe Sharon ( he, משה שָׁרוֹן; born December 18, 1937) is an Israeli historian of Islam.
He is currently Professor Emeritus of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem where he serves as Chair in Bahá ...
: "Eager to obliterate the name of the rebellious Judaea
Judea or Judaea ( or ; from he, יהודה, Standard ''Yəhūda'', Tiberian ''Yehūḏā''; el, Ἰουδαία, ; la, Iūdaea) is an ancient, historic, Biblical Hebrew, contemporaneous Latin, and the modern-day name of the mountainous so ...
", the Roman authorities renamed it ''Palaestina'' or ''Syria Palaestina''.
Archaeological findings
Over the past few decades, new information about the revolt has come to light, from the discovery of several collections of letters, some possibly by Bar Kokhba himself, in the
Cave of Letters
The Cave of Letters is a cave in Nahal Hever in the Judean Desert where letters and fragments of papyri from the Roman Empire period were found. Some are related to the Bar Kokhba revolt (circa 131-136), including letters of correspondence betw ...
overlooking the
Dead Sea. These letters can now be seen at the
Israel Museum.
Ideology and language
According to Israeli archaeologist
Yigael Yadin
Yigael Yadin ( he, יִגָּאֵל יָדִין ) (20 March 1917 – 28 June 1984) was an Israeli archeologist, soldier and politician. He was the second Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces and Deputy Prime Minister from 1977 to 1981.
B ...
, Bar Kokhba tried to revive
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
and make Hebrew the official language of the Jews as part of his
messianic ideology. In ''A Roadmap to the Heavens: An Anthropological Study of Hegemony among Priests, Sages, and Laymen (Judaism and Jewish Life)'' by Sigalit Ben-Zion (page 155), Yadin remarked: "it seems that this change came as a result of the order that was given by Bar Kokhba, who wanted to revive the Hebrew language and make it the official language of the state."
Character
Talmud
Simon bar Kokhba is portrayed in rabbinic literature as being somewhat irrational and irascible in conduct. The Talmud
Jerusalem Talmud
The Jerusalem Talmud ( he, תַּלְמוּד יְרוּשַׁלְמִי, translit=Talmud Yerushalmi, often for short), also known as the Palestinian Talmud or Talmud of the Land of Israel, is a collection of rabbinic notes on the second-century ...
, '' Ta'anit'' 4:5 (24b); same episode repeated in Midrash Rabba (Lamentations Rabbah
The Midrash on Lamentations or Eichah Rabbah (Hebrew: איכה רבה) is a midrashic commentary to the Book of Lamentations ("Eichah").
It is one of the oldest works of midrash, along with Bereshit Rabbah and the Pesiḳta ascribed to Rab Ka ...
2:5) says that he presided over an army of Jewish insurgents numbering some 200,000, but had compelled its young recruits to prove their valor by each man chopping off one of his own fingers. The Sages of Israel complained to him why he marred the people of Israel with such blemishes. Whenever he would go forth into battle, he was reported as saying: "O Master of the universe, there is no need for you to assist us
gainst our enemies but do not embarrass us either!"
It is also said of him that he killed his maternal uncle, Rabbi
Elazar Hamudaʻi, after suspecting him of collaborating with the enemy, thereby forfeiting Divine protection, which led to the destruction of
Betar in which Bar Kokhba himself also perished.
Hadrian is thought to have personally supervised the closing military operations in the siege against Betar. When the Roman army eventually took the city, soldiers carried Bar Kokhba's severed head to Hadrian, and when Hadrian asked who it was that killed him, a
Samaritan replied that he had killed him. When Hadrian requested that they bring the severed head (
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
:''protome'') of the slain victim close to him that he might see it, Hadrian observed that a serpent was wrapped around the head. Hadrian then replied: "Had it not been for God who killed him, who would have been able to kill him!?"
Eusebius
Bar Kokhba was a ruthless leader, punishing any Jew who refused to join his ranks. According to Eusebius'
''Chronicon'', he severely punished the sect of Christians with death by different means of torture for their refusal to fight against the Romans.
In popular culture
![Stamp of Israel - Festivals 5722 - 0](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5a/Stamp_of_Israel_-_Festivals_5722_-_0.40IL.jpg)
Since the end of the nineteenth century, Bar-Kochba has been the subject of numerous works of art (dramas, operas, novels, etc.), including:
* (1858), a Hebrew novel by
Kalman Schulman
Kalman Schulman (1819 – January 2, 1899) was a Jewish writer who pioneered modern Hebrew literature.
Life
Schulman was born in 1819 in Bykhaw, Mogilev Governorate, Russia. He came from a Hassidic family.
Schulman studied Hebrew and the Talmu ...
* ''Bar Kokhba'' (1882), a Yiddish operetta by
Abraham Goldfaden
Abraham Goldfaden (Yiddish: אַבֿרהם גאָלדפֿאַדען; born Avrum Goldnfoden; 24 July 1840 – 9 January 1908), also known as Avram Goldfaden, was a Russian-born Jewish poet, playwright, stage director and actor in the languages Yid ...
(mus. and libr.). The work was written in the wake of
pogrom
A pogrom () is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russia ...
s against Jews following the 1881 assassination of
Czar Alexander II of
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
.
* ''Bar Kokhba'' (1884), a Hebrew drama by
Yehudah Loeb Landau
Judah or Yehuda is the name of a biblical patriarch, Judah (son of Jacob). It may also refer to:
Historical ethnic, political and geographic terms
* Tribe of Judah, one of the twelve Tribes of Israel; their allotment corresponds to Judah or Jud ...
* ''The Son of a Star'' (1888), an English novel by
Benjamin Ward Richardson
* (1903), a French opera by
Camille Erlanger
Camille Erlanger (25 May 186324 April 1919) was a French opera composer. He studied at the Paris Conservatory under Léo Delibes (composition), Georges Mathias (piano), as well as Émile Durand and Antoine Taubon (harmony).Jacobshagen, Arnold: " ...
(mus.) and
Catulle Mendes
Gaius Valerius Catullus (; 84 - 54 BCE), often referred to simply as Catullus (, ), was a Latin poet of the late Roman Republic who wrote chiefly in the neoteric style of poetry, focusing on personal life rather than classical heroes. His s ...
(libr.)
* ''Bar-Kochba'' (1905), a German opera by
Stanislaus Suda (mus.) and Karl Jonas (libr.)
* (1910), a Yiddish novel by
David Pinsky
David Pinski (Yiddish: דוד פּינסקי; April 5, 1872 – August 11, 1959) was a Yiddish language writer, probably best known as a playwright. At a time when Eastern Europe was only beginning to experience the industrial revolution, Pinsk ...
* ''Bar-Kokhba'' (1929), a Hebrew drama by
Shaul Tchernichovsky
* ''Bar-Kokhba'' (1939), a Yiddish drama by
Shmuel Halkin
* ''Bar-Kokhba'' (1941), a Yiddish novel by
Abraham Raphael Forsyth
Abraham, ; ar, , , name=, group= (originally Abram) is the common Hebrews, Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father of the Covenant (biblical), special ...
* (1943), a Hungarian drama by
Lajos Szabolcsi
* (1952), a Danish novel by
Poul Borchsenius
Poul is a Danish masculine given name. It is the Danish cognate of the name Paul. Poul may refer to:
People
* Poul Andersen (1922–2006), Danish printer
*Poul Anderson (1926–2001), American writer
*Poul Erik Andreasen (born 1949), Danish foot ...
* ''Prince of Israel'' (1952), an English novel by
Elias Gilner
* ''Bar-Kokhba'' (1953), a Hebrew novel by
Joseph Opatoshu
Joseph Opatoshu () (January 1, 1886 – October 7, 1954) was a Polish-born Yiddish
Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated du ...
* ''Son of a Star'' (1969), an English novel by
Andrew Meisels
* ''If I Forget Thee'' (1983), an English novel by
Brenda Lesley Segal
* ''(A Star in Its Course: The Life of Bar-Kokhba)'' (1988), a Hebrew novel by
S.J. Kreutner
* (1988), a Hebrew novel by
Yeroshua Perah
* ''My Husband, Bar Kokhba'' (2003), an English novel by
Andrew Sanders
Andrew is the English form of a given name common in many countries. In the 1990s, it was among the top ten most popular names given to boys in English-speaking countries. "Andrew" is frequently shortened to "Andy" or "Drew". The word is derived ...
* ''Knowledge Columns'' (2014), an American rap song by
Dopey Ziegler
*''Son Of A Star'' (2015), song by Israeli metal band Desert
Another operetta on the subject of Bar Kokhba was written by the Russian-Jewish emigre composer
Yaacov Bilansky Levanon in Palestine in the 1920s.
John Zorn's Masada Chamber Ensemble recorded an album called ''
Bar Kokhba
Simon ben Koseba or Cosiba ( he, שִׁמְעוֹן בַּר כֹסֵבָא, translit= Šīmʾōn bar Ḵōsēḇaʾ ; died 135 CE), commonly known as Bar Kokhba ( he, שִׁמְעוֹן בַּר כּוֹכְבָא, translit=Šīmʾōn bar ...
'', showing a photograph of the Letter of Bar Kokhba to Yeshua, son of Galgola on the cover.
The Bar Kokhba game
According to a legend, during his reign, Bar Kokhba was once presented a mutilated man, who had his tongue ripped out and hands cut off. Unable to talk or write, the victim was incapable of telling who his attackers were. Thus, Bar Kokhba decided to ask simple questions to which the dying man was able to nod or shake his head with his last movements; the murderers were consequently apprehended.
In
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...
, this legend spawned the "Bar Kokhba game", in which one of two players comes up with a word or object, while the other must figure it out by asking questions only to be answered with "yes" or "no". The questioner usually asks first if it is a living being, if not, if it is an object, if not, it is surely an abstraction. The verb ''kibarkochbázni'' ("to Bar Kochba out") became a common language verb meaning "retrieving information in an extremely tedious way".
[kibarkochbázni]
/ref>
See also
* Bar Kokhba Revolt coinage
* Bar Kokhba weights
* Jewish Messiah claimants
The messiah in Judaism means "anointed one" and included Jewish priests, prophets and kings such as David and Cyrus the Great. Later, especially after the failure of the Hasmonean Kingdom (37 BCE) and the Jewish–Roman wars (66–135 CE), the ...
* Lukuas
Lukuas was one of the leaders of Jewish rebels during the Kitos War, also known as the Second Jewish War, in the 2nd century AD. The narrative of the revolt under Lukuas is told by Eusebius of Caesarea, Michael Syrus, Bar Hebraeus and Cassius D ...
Notes
References
Bibliography
* Eck, W. 'The Bar Kokhba Revolt: the Roman point of view' in the ''Journal of Roman Studies'' 89 (1999) 76ff.
* Goodblatt, David; Pinnick, Avital; Schwartz Daniel: ''Historical Perspectives: From the Hasmoneans to the Bar Kohkba Revolt In Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls'': Boston: Brill: 2001:
* Marks, Richard: ''The Image of Bar Kokhba in Traditional Jewish Literature: False Messiah and National Hero'': University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press: 1994:
* Reznick, Leibel: ''The Mystery of Bar Kokhba:'' Northvale: J.Aronson: 1996:
* Schafer, Peter: ''The Bar Kokhba War Reconsidered'': Tübingen: Mohr: 2003:
* Ussishkin, David: "Archaeological Soundings at Betar, Bar-Kochba's Last Stronghold", in: ''Tel Aviv. Journal of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University'' 20 (1993) 66ff.
* Yadin, Yigael: ''Bar Kokhba: The Rediscovery of the Legendary Hero of the Last Jewish Revolt Against Imperial Rome'': London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson: 1971:
Further reading
*
External links
Video Lecture on Bar Kochba
by Henry Abramson
Henry Abramson (born 1963) is the dean of the Lander College of Arts and Sciences in Flatbush, New York. Before that, he served as the Dean for Academic Affairs and Student Services at Touro College's Miami branch (Touro College South). He is no ...
Cave of Letters
on Nova
The Bar-Kokhba Revolt (132–135 C.E.)
by Shira Schoenberg
Bar Kochba
with links to all sources (livius.org)
Genealogy of the House of David- Simon bar Koziba
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bar Kokhba, Simon
Year of birth missing
135 deaths
Bar Kokhba revolt
Jewish messiah claimants
Jewish military personnel
Jewish royalty
Jews and Judaism in the Roman Empire
2nd-century monarchs in the Middle East
2nd-century Jews