Topic summary
Diaspora Revolt
- Local populations
Jewish rebels, primarily in:
- Lukuas
- Artemio
The Diaspora Revolt (115–117 CE), sometimes known as the SecondJewish–RomanWar, was a series of uprisings launched by Jewish diaspora communities in several eastern provinces of the Roman Empire during the final years of Emperor 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 the Jewish homeland, Judaea.
The uprisings broke out almost simultaneously in Egypt, Cyrenaica, and Cyprus. Rebel attacks were directed mainly against locals rather than Roman authorities, with ancient authors such as Cassius Dio and Eusebius, as well as epigraphic evidence, reporting extreme violence. There is also a reference in Eusebius to Roman actions against Jews in Mesopotamia, though these events appear to have formed part of a broader local resistance to the Roman invasion of the Parthian Empire, rather than another Jewish uprising.
Marcius Turbo, one of Trajan's top generals, was dispatched to suppress the uprisings in Egypt and Cyrenaica. Literary sources suggest that the Jewish population in these regions faced severe reprisals. Meanwhile, General Lusius Quietus quelled the rebellion in Mesopotamia and was subsequently appointed governor of Judaea. It was during this period that the poorly understood Kitos War may have occurred in Judaea, apparently involving unrest among the Jewish population. The diaspora uprisings were likely suppressed before autumn 117, just prior to Trajan's death; however, some unrest may have persisted into the winter of 117–118.
The Diaspora Revolt led to the devastation, and in some cases the annihilation, of Jewish communities in Egypt, Cyrenaica, and Cyprus. Significant damage to buildings, temples, and roads is well attested 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. The war is also believed to have ended Alexandria's early Christian community, which was largely of Jewish origins; the later non-Jewish Christian community adopted traditions that had originated in the city's Jewish population. Thirteen years after the diaspora uprisings, perhaps seeking to eradicate the seat of Jewish unrest, Emperor Hadrian re-founded Jerusalem as a Roman colony; in response, the Jews of Judaea launched the catastrophic Bar Kokhba Revolt. In the aftermath of the Diaspora Revolt, the largest Jewish diaspora communities were concentrated in Mesopotamia, Asia Minor and Italy. Jewish communities reestablished themselves in Egypt, Cyprus, and Cyrenaica during the 3rd–4th centuries CE, though they never reached their former prominence.