Kitos War

Kitos War
Part of the Second Jewish–Roman War
Judaea, where the war took place
Date 116–118 CE Location Judaea Result Roman victory Territorial changes Status quo ante bellum
Belligerents
Roman Empire	Jewish rebels
Commanders and leaders
Trajan # Lusius Quietus	Lukuas  Julianus [1] Pappus [1] Gamliel II #

The Kitos War^[a] was a Jewish uprising in the province of Judaea during the late 110s CE. Ancient Jewish sources date it to 52 years after Vespasian's war (66–73 CE) and 16 years before the Bar Kokhba revolt (132–136).

The Kitos War occurred amid the broader Diaspora Revolt of 115–117, which saw Jewish uprisings across the Roman East, including Egypt, Libya, Cyprus, and Mesopotamia. Following the suppression of the revolt in Mesopotamia, the Roman general Lusius Quietus (also known as Kitos) was appointed consul and governor of Judaea by Emperor Trajan. Late Syriac sources suggest that Jews from Egypt and Libya relocated to Judaea and were defeated by Roman forces. However, the reliability of these sources is debated, and modern scholarship remains cautious with the lack of confirmation from Cassius Dio and Eusebius, the main sources for the Diaspora Revolt.

Lusius Quietus laid siege to Lydda, where the rebel Jews had gathered under the leadership of Julian and Pappus. Lydda was taken, and many of the rebellious Jews were executed. The "slain of Lydda" are often mentioned in words of reverential praise in the Talmud.^[2] The rebel leaders Pappus and Julian were among those whom the Romans executed that year.^[3]

The situation in Judea remained tense for the Romans, who were obliged under Hadrian to move the Legio VI Ferrata permanently into Caesarea Maritima in Judea. Fifteen years later, the Bar Kokhba revolt erupted, marking the last major Jewish attempt to regain independence in Judaea.

The Hebrew name for the conflict, פולמוס קיטוס‎ Polmus Ḳīṭus, is a corruption (likely through Aramaic) of the Greek Πόλεμος του Κυήτου Pólemos tū Cyḗtū (meaning Quietus's War), after the Roman governor of Judaea, Lusius Quietus, who put down the revolt.

The terms "Kitos War", "Diaspora Revolt" and "Second Jewish–Roman War", are often used interchangeably, but the first two terms are better understood as theatres of the latter larger conflict.

Tension between the Jewish population of the Roman Empire and the Greek and Roman populations mounted over the course of the 1st century CE, gradually escalating with various violent events, mainly throughout Judea (Iudaea), where parts of the Judean population occasionally erupted into violent insurrections against the Roman Empire. Several incidents also occurred in other parts of the empire, most notably the Alexandria pogroms, targeting the large Jewish community of Alexandria in the province of Egypt. However, with the exception of Alexandria, the Jewish diaspora fared well throughout the Roman Empire and relied on the Roman state to maintain their rights.^[4]

The escalation of tensions finally erupted as the First Jewish–Roman War, which began in 66. Initial hostilities were the result of Greek and Jewish religious tensions but later escalated with anti-taxation protests and attacks upon Roman citizens.^[5] The Roman military garrison of Judea was quickly overrun by rebels and the pro-Roman king Herod Agrippa II fled Jerusalem, together with Roman officials, to Galilee. Cestius Gallus, the legate of Syria, brought the Syrian army, based on XII Fulminata, reinforced by auxiliary troops, to restore order and quell the revolt. The legion, however, was ambushed and defeated by Jewish rebels at the Battle of Beth Horon, a result that shocked the Roman leadership.

The suppression of the revolt was then handed to General Vespasian and his son Titus, who assembled four legions and began advancing through the country, starting with Galilee in 67. The revolt ended when legions under Titus besieged and destroyed the center of rebel resistance in Jerusalem in 70 and defeated the remaining Jewish strongholds later on.

In 115, Emperor Trajan was in command of the eastern campaign against the Parthian Empire. The Roman invasion had been prompted by the imposition of a pro-Parthian king in the Kingdom of Armenia after the Parthians invaded it. That encroachment on the traditional sphere of influence of the Roman Empire (both empires had shared hegemony over Armenia since the time of Nero some 50 years earlier) necessarily led to war.

As Trajan's army advanced victoriously through Mesopotamia, Jewish rebels in its rear began attacking the small garrisons left behind. A revolt in far-off Cyrenaica soon spread to Egypt and then Cyprus and incited revolt in Judea. A widespread uprising, centred on Lydda, threatened grain supplies from Egypt to the front. The Jewish insurrection swiftly spread to the recently conquered provinces. Cities with substantial Jewish populations, Nisibis, Edessa, Seleucia and Arbela (now Erbil, Iraq) joined the rebellion and slaughtered their small Roman garrisons.

The Jewish leader Lukuas fled to Judea.^[6] Marcius Turbo pursued him and sentenced to death the brothers Julian and Pappus, who had been key leaders in the rebellion. Lusius Quietus, the conqueror of the Jews of Mesopotamia, rose to command of the Roman army in Judea and laid siege to Lydda, where the rebel Jews had gathered under the leadership of Julian and Pappus. The distress became so great that the patriarch Rabban Gamaliel II, who was shut up there and died soon afterwards, permitted fasting even on Ḥanukkah. Other rabbis condemned that measure.^[7] Lydda was then taken, and many of the rebellious Jews were executed; the "slain of Lydda" are often mentioned in words of reverential praise in the Talmud.^[2] Pappus and Julian were among those executed by the Romans that year, and became martyrs among the Jews.^[3]

Lusius Quietus, whom Trajan had held in high regard and who had served Rome so well, was quietly stripped of his command once Hadrian had secured the imperial title. He was murdered in unknown circumstances in the summer of 118, possibly by the orders of Hadrian. Hadrian took the unpopular decisions to end the war, abandon many of Trajan's eastern conquests, and stabilise the eastern borders. Although he abandoned the province of Mesopotamia, he installed Parthamaspates—who had been ejected from Ctesiphon by the returning Osroes—as king of a restored Osroene. For a century, Osroene retained a precarious independence as a buffer state between both empires. The situation in Judea remained tense for the Romans, who were obliged under Hadrian to move the Legio VI Ferrata permanently into Caesarea Maritima in Judea.

Further developments occurred in Judaea Province in 130, when Hadrian visited the Eastern Mediterranean and, according to Cassius Dio, made the decision to rebuild the ruined city of Jerusalem as the Roman colony of Aelia Capitolina, derived from his own name. That decision, together with Hadrian's other sanctions against the Jews, was allegedly one of the reasons for the eruption of the 132 Bar Kokhba revolt, an extremely violent uprising that stretched Roman military resources to the limit. The rebellion ended with an unprecedented onslaught of the Judean population and a ban upon the Jewish practices, which was lifted only in 138, upon Hadrian's death.

• History of the Jews in the Roman Empire
• Jewish revolt against Constantius Gallus, 352
• Samaritan revolts, 484–572
• Jewish revolt against Heraclius, 614–617/625

• List of conflicts in the Near East

• "BAR KOKBA AND BAR KOKBA WAR" article from Jewish Encyclopedia Archived 2011-06-28 at the Wayback Machine (public domain)
• "Cyprus: In Roman Times" article from Jewish Encyclopedia Archived 2011-06-28 at the Wayback Machine (public domain)
• "Cyrene" article from Jewish Encyclopedia Archived 2011-06-28 at the Wayback Machine (public domain)
• "The revolt against Trajan", at livius.org
• Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, 4.2.