Bar Kokhba Revolt & Iudaea

[Branch]

I've just finished a novel length story set during the Bar Kokhba Revolt (AD 132 - AD 135) and besides the Roman Empire Map I purchased from this site and the abundance of information about the legions I also got from this site, I found a great resource for any one interested in this time period. The Bar Kokhba War Reconsidered edited by Peter Schafer does an excellent job of using archaeological and epigraphic evidence to create a clearer picture of this little documented but major revolt. Two chapters in particular give a fascinating look at the cave complexes the Jews used during this revolt. And the authors make it clear that these cave systems were used as a important part of the Jewish offensive rather than as defensive positions of last resort as they were used in the First Jewish Revolt.

 

With this in mind, does any one know of any good descriptions of how the Romans dealt strategically with these highly defensible Jewish positions. For my writing, I used mainly examples from Josephus's Jewish War to portray Roman strategies but was wondering if anyone has read of legion tactics in tight quarters.

 

If anyone is interested in my story I'm releasing 12 or so chapters a little at a time in a new blog I've just set up at www.iudaeanovel.com

 

I'm also going to be posting historical information about the conflict and reviews of books that I used for research. I'd like to invite all of you to come take a look. I'm hoping between the story and the history you will find something interesting. I also welcome any comments and creative criticism you might have concerning the writing or historical accuracy of the text.

 

Once again, I'd like to thank UNRV for all the inspiration and information they have provided over the years,

 

Jim

www.iudaeanovel.com

[Branch]

Here is the actual quote from Josephus's The Jewish War that I was thinking of in the previous post. It is actually a tactic used by Herod against bandits that were hiding in caves.

 

"These caves opened on to almost vertical slopes and could not be reached from any direction except by winding, steep, and very narrow paths; the cliff in front stretched right down into ravines of immense depth dropping straight into the torrent-bed. So for a long time the king was defeated by the appalling difficulty of the ground, finally resorting to a plan fraught with the utmost danger. He lowered the toughest of his soldiers in cradles till they reached the mouths of the caves; they then slaughtered the bandits with their families and threw firebrands at those who were brought out forcibly many preferred death to captivity."

 

The passage goes on to describe one old man who kills his seven children and his wife at the mouth of the cave so Herod could see and then jumps to his death on the rocks below - all to avoid captivity.

[Centurion Marcus Valerius]

I've just finished a novel length story set during the Bar Kokhba Revolt (AD 132 - AD 135) and besides the Roman Empire Map I purchased from this site and the abundance of information about the legions I also got from this site, I found a great resource for any one interested in this time period. The Bar Kokhba War Reconsidered edited by Peter Schafer does an excellent job of using archaeological and epigraphic evidence to create a clearer picture of this little documented but major revolt. Two chapters in particular give a fascinating look at the cave complexes the Jews used during this revolt. And the authors make it clear that these cave systems were used as a important part of the Jewish offensive rather than as defensive positions of last resort as they were used in the First Jewish Revolt.

 

With this in mind, does any one know of any good descriptions of how the Romans dealt strategically with these highly defensible Jewish positions. For my writing, I used mainly examples from Josephus's Jewish War to portray Roman strategies but was wondering if anyone has read of legion tactics in tight quarters.

 

If anyone is interested in my story I'm releasing 12 or so chapters a little at a time in a new blog I've just set up at www.iudaeanovel.com

 

I'm also going to be posting historical information about the conflict and reviews of books that I used for research. I'd like to invite all of you to come take a look. I'm hoping between the story and the history you will find something interesting. I also welcome any comments and creative criticism you might have concerning the writing or historical accuracy of the text.

 

Once again, I'd like to thank UNRV for all the inspiration and information they have provided over the years,

 

Jim

www.iudaeanovel.com

 

My novel, "No Roads Lead to Rome," takes place about a decade earlier across the waters in Hispania. One of my characters is a young Jewish rebel who's trying to get to Judea to join the fray. I'm considering sending him there in a sequel but, as you realize, it's a huge historical backdrop to paint on.

 

Unlike the period you are working in, I was able to inject a good dose of humor into a relatively obscure corner of the empire.

 

Hadrian's war in Judea intrigues me as planting the seeds of a conflict that we're still living with today. I'll be interested to read your work.

 

Good luck!

 

RSG

[Branch]

My novel, "No Roads Lead to Rome," takes place about a decade earlier across the waters in Hispania. One of my characters is a young Jewish rebel who's trying to get to Judea to join the fray. I'm considering sending him there in a sequel but, as you realize, it's a huge historical backdrop to paint on.

 

Unlike the period you are working in, I was able to inject a good dose of humor into a relatively obscure corner of the empire.

 

Hadrian's war in Judea intrigues me as planting the seeds of a conflict that we're still living with today. I'll be interested to read your work.

 

Good luck!

 

RSG

 

As I researched this conflict I was amazed not only with the scale of this seemingly obscure revolt but also of its significance to the plight of the Jewish people for over two millennium - like you said it planted the seeds of many of the future conflicts in the region. This is a quote from Wikipedia that I think describes the significance of the conflict:

 

"Modern historians have come to view the Bar-Kokhba Revolt as being of decisive historic importance. The massive destruction and loss of life occasioned by the revolt has led some scholars to date the beginning of the Jewish diaspora from this date. They note that, unlike the aftermath of the First Jewish-Roman War chronicled by Josephus, the majority of the Jewish population of Judea was either killed, exiled, or sold into slavery after the Bar-Kokhba Revolt, and Jewish religious and political authority was suppressed far more brutally. After the revolt the Jewish religious center shifted to the Babylonian Jewish community and its scholars. Judea would not be a center of Jewish religious, cultural, or political life again until the modern era, though Jews continued to live there and important religious developments still occurred there."

 

Little facts about the conflict amaze me too - like how the Jews used the caves as hiding places and storehouses very much like the Palestinians are using them today to hide and tunnel out of Gaza and even to conduct raids in Israel. It is forcing the Israelis to scour out the tunnels much like the Romans had to against the Israeli's ancestors.

[Branch]

Here is some history regarding the Bar Kokhba Revolt AD 132-135

 

Cassius Dio

[caldrail]

In general the Roman approach to prepared positions was to confine and starve them out. However, the Romans weren't always prepared to sit out a siege and sooner or later the need for victory would provoke a more direct response. The Roman commander might be keen to impress the Emperor with a quick victory, or perhaps need one to preserve what's left of his political career.

 

There might be practical reasons for wanting a quick ending. Logisitics for instance. Even with a single legion on site, you still need sooner or later to supply nearly six thousand men with food and water in a region where foraging isn't so easy (and as everywhere, remains a diminishing resource). Although the Romans developed an expertise in logistics, this was primarily between fixed sites, not columns on campaign, which more often than not had to rely on their own initiative for supply.

 

Once an assault becomes the preferred tactic, is a tunnel necessary? Could the rebels be smoked out with fires? If necessary, the legionaries would be ordered to go in, and you might well imagine the claustrophic hack and thrust in dark passages.