Kitos War

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Jewish-Roman wars
First War – Kitos War – Bar Kokhba's revolt

Kitos War

Roman Empire after 120

Date	115—117
Location	Cyprus, Libya, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Judea, Syria
Result	Revolt was suppressed by the Roman Empire

Combatants

Roman Empire

Jews of Iudaea

Commanders

Lusius Quietus

Lukuas or Andreas

Casualties

The Kitos War (115—117) is the name given to the second of the Jewish-Roman wars. The name comes from the Mauretanian Roman general Lusius Quietus who ruthlessly suppressed a Jewish revolt in Mesopotamia and was sent to Iudaea to handle the revolt there as procurator under Trajan, a position he held till he was recalled to Rome and executed by Hadrian.

In 115, the Roman army led by Trajan was fighting against one of its major enemies, the Parthian Empire. The diasporic Jews started a revolt in Cyrenaica that also involved Aegyptus and Cyprus. In Cyrene (Cyrenaica), the rebels (led by a Lukuas or Andreas, who called himself "king" according to Eusebius of Caesarea), destroyed many temples, including those to Hecate, Jupiter, Apollo, Artemis, and Isis, as well as the civil structures symbols of Rome, the Caesareum, the basilica, and the thermae. The Greek and Roman population was exterminated.

Then Lukuas moved towards Alexandria, entered the city abandoned by the Roman troops in Egypt led by governor Marcus Rutilius Lupus, and set fire to the city. The pagan temples and the tomb of Pompey were destroyed. Trajan sent new troops under the praefectus pretorius Quintus Marcius Turbo, but Egypt and Cyrenaica were pacified only in autumn 117. The situation was pacified also in Cyprus, where Jews led by Artemion had taken control of the island. According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, "Under the leadership of one Artemion, the Cyprian Jews participated in the great uprising against the Romans under Trajan (117), and they are reported to have massacred 240,000 Greeks (Dio Cassius, lxviii. 32)." [1] The Roman army reconquered the capital and the Jews were forbidden to live in the island.

A new revolt sprang up in Mesopotamia, while Trajan was leading his troops against the Parthians, in the Persic Gulf. Trajan reconquered Nisibis (Nusaybin in Turkey), the capital of Osroene Edessa, and Seleucia on the Tigris (Iraq), each of which housed ancient and important Jewish communities. After the end of the revolt, Trajan was uneasy with the situation, and sent the Mauretanian general Lusius Quietus, to kill Cypriot, Mesopotamian and Syrian Jewish suspects, appointing him governor of Iudaea.

The insurrection of the Jews of Cyrene, Cyprus, and Egypt in the last years of the emperor Trajan had not been entirely suppressed when Hadrian assumed the reins of government in 118. The seat of war was transferred to Iudaea, whither the Jewish leader Lukuas had fled.^[1] Marcius Turbo had pursued him, and had sentenced to death the brothers Julian and Pappus, who had been the soul of the rebellion. But Turbo was himself executed upon special orders sent from Rome, and the lives of the brothers were saved.^[2] Lusius Quietus, the conqueror of the Jews of Mesopotamia, was now in command of the Roman army in Iudaea, and laid siege to Lydda, where the Jews had gathered. The distress became so great that the patriarch Rabban Gamaliel II, who was shut up there and died soon afterward, permitted fasting even on Ḥanukkah. Other rabbis, such as the peace-loving R. Joshua b. Hananiah, condemned this measure.^[3] Soon afterward Lydda was taken and masses of the Jews were executed; the "slain of Lydda" are often mentioned in words of reverential praise in the Talmud.^[4] Pappus and Julian were among those executed by the Romans in the same year.^[5] The foregoing are the most important events of the campaign of Quietus as mentioned in rabbinical sources.^[6]

However, the situation was not easy for the Romans, who were obliged, under Hadrian to permanently move the Legio VI Ferrata to control Iudaea, and to counter the later Bar Kokhba's revolt.

[edit] References and external links

"BAR KOKBA AND BAR KOKBA WAR" article from Jewish Encyclopedia (public domain)
"Cyprus: In Roman Times" article from Jewish Encyclopedia (public domain)
"Cyrene" article from Jewish Encyclopedia (public domain)
"The revolt against Trajan", from livius.org
Eusebius Ecclesiastical History 4.2

[edit] Notes

^ Abulfaraj, in Münter, "Der Jüdische Krieg," p. 18, Altona and Leipsic, 1821
^ Sifra, Emor, viii. 9 [ed. Weiss, p. 99d]; Meg. Ta'anit xii.; Ta'anit 18b; Sem. viii.; Eccl. R. iii. 17
^ Ta'anit ii. 10; Yer. Ta'anit ii. 66a; Yer. Meg. i. 70d; R. H. 18b
^ Pes. 50a; B. B. 10b; Eccl. R. ix. 10
^ Ta'anit 18b; Yer. Ta'anit 66b
^ See also "Revue Etudes Juives," xxx. 212