The Forgotten Jewish Revolt That Devastated the Diaspora
Between the destruction of the Second Temple and the Bar Kokhba Revolt, Jewish communities across the Roman world launched a rebellion whose consequences were catastrophic. Historian Tal Ilan explains what we know—and what remains a mystery. This post is based on our podcast discussion. The post was generated by AI but edited by a human.
In 70 CE, the Romans destroyed the Second Temple in Jerusalem.
In 132 CE, another Jewish revolt broke out in Judea under Bar Kokhba.
These are two of the most familiar events in the history of Jewish resistance to Rome.
But between them came another rebellion, one that spread across several regions of the Roman world and had devastating consequences for Jewish communities that had existed for centuries.
The Diaspora Revolt of 115–117 CE is sometimes called the Kitos War.
It unfolded during the reign of Emperor Trajan and involved Jewish populations in Egypt, Cyrene (modern day Libya), Cyprus, and Mesopotamia.
Unlike the Great Revolt of 66–73 CE, it was not primarily a war centered on Jerusalem or Judea.
Instead, its geography was extraordinary.
Jewish uprisings erupted in widely separated parts of the empire, and the Romans were forced to confront resistance across multiple territories.
Yet despite its scale, the Diaspora Revolt remains remarkably obscure.
I spoke with Professor Tal Ilan, a historian of ancient Judaism, about this forgotten rebellion.
What makes the conversation particularly interesting is the nature of the evidence.
We do not possess a detailed historical narrative of the revolt comparable to Josephus's account of the First Jewish Revolt.
Much of what we know comes from scattered Roman accounts, inscriptions, and ancient papyri.
And those fragments reveal something extraordinary.
In Egypt, one of the most important centers of Jewish life in the ancient world, the revolt appears to have brought about a dramatic rupture in the history of Jewish communities.
The Disappearance of Egyptian Jewry
One of the first questions I asked Professor Ilan concerned what happened to Jews in the Diaspora after the rebellion.
Her answer was striking.
We know far less than we would like about the revolt's consequences in places such as Mesopotamia.
But Egypt is different.
Because of its climate, Egypt has preserved enormous numbers of papyri—documents that provide evidence of everyday life, administration, taxation, family relationships, and communal institutions.
Historians can compare these documents from before and after the revolt.
And Professor Ilan explains that the contrast is dramatic.
Before 115 CE, the papyri contain substantial evidence for Jewish individuals and communities.
After the revolt, the evidence becomes exceptionally scarce.
For approximately a century, the surviving documentation offers little evidence of organized Jewish communal life in Egypt.
That does not mean every Jew in Egypt was killed.
Professor Ilan is careful about this distinction.
An absence of documents cannot establish the total disappearance of a population.
But it does suggest that the revolt had an enormous effect on Jewish institutions and the visibility of Jewish communities.
This is especially significant when we remember what Egyptian Judaism had been before the revolt.
Alexandria was one of the great intellectual centers of the Jewish world.
It was associated with the translation of Jewish scriptures into Greek and with a rich tradition of Jewish literature.
Philo of Alexandria, the first-century Jewish philosopher, was one of its most important representatives.
Yet after the Diaspora Revolt, the evidence for this flourishing communal and intellectual world largely disappears.
For me, this was one of the most sobering aspects of the conversation.
We tend to remember the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple as the defining catastrophe of first-century Jewish history.
But the Diaspora Revolt may have represented an equally profound turning point for certain Jewish communities outside Judea.
The Long History of Hostility Toward Jews in Egypt
Professor Ilan emphasizes that the rebellion did not emerge out of nowhere.
Jewish communities in Egypt had experienced hostility long before 115 CE.
In particular, she discusses the violence against Jews in Alexandria in 38 CE.
That episode occurred more than three decades before the Romans destroyed the Second Temple.
It involved serious tensions between Jewish and Greek inhabitants of the city and raised questions about civic rights, political status, and the position of Jewish communities under Roman authority.
The Jewish philosopher Philo wrote about these events.
Professor Ilan places them within a much longer history of anti-Jewish hostility in Egypt.
One point she makes is especially important.
Hostility toward Jews in the ancient Mediterranean cannot be explained solely as a product of Christianity.
Anti-Jewish sentiments and violence existed long before Christianity became an influential political force.
Of course, ancient anti-Jewish prejudice did not always operate in the same way as modern antisemitism.
But the evidence from Roman Egypt shows that Jews could face intense hostility based on their communal identity and religious practices.
These tensions formed part of the background to the Diaspora Revolt.
Rome's Victory Over Jerusalem Was Felt Throughout the Diaspora
The destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE affected Jews far beyond Judea.
Professor Ilan highlights two Roman actions that would have had particular significance for Egyptian Jews.
The first was the closure of the Jewish temple associated with Onias in Egypt.
This sanctuary had existed for generations in the eastern Nile Delta.
Following the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple, Roman authorities ordered the Egyptian sanctuary closed as well.
It was another sign that the consequences of the Great Revolt extended beyond the territory where the war had been fought.
The second—and perhaps more humiliating—measure was the Jewish tax.
After the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple, the Romans imposed the fiscus Judaicus.
Jews who had previously contributed to the Jerusalem Temple were now required to pay a tax directed toward the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus in Rome.
Professor Ilan emphasizes the symbolism.
Rome had defeated the Jews, destroyed their Temple, and redirected a Jewish religious payment toward the worship of a Roman deity.
This was a public demonstration of imperial victory.
And it was not a temporary measure.
The tax continued to be collected for decades.
Egyptian papyri provide evidence of its collection close to the outbreak of the Diaspora Revolt.
It is not possible to say that this tax caused the rebellion.
But it was one of the grievances that Jewish communities experienced in the decades following the destruction of Jerusalem.
The revolt therefore needs to be understood against a background of political humiliation, religious loss, and longstanding communal tensions.
Was the Diaspora Revolt a Messianic Uprising?
I also asked Professor Ilan whether the revolt may have been influenced by apocalyptic or messianic expectations.
The question seemed natural.
The Jewish revolts against Rome are often discussed in connection with religious hopes for liberation and the restoration of Jewish sovereignty.
But Professor Ilan was cautious.
For Egypt, she explained, the surviving evidence does not provide a clear basis for identifying a strong apocalyptic program.
The situation in Cyrene may have been somewhat different.
Ancient sources describe a rebel leader whose name appears in different forms, including Andreas and Lukuas.
He seems to have attracted a significant following.
But the nature of his authority remains uncertain.
Was he a political leader?
A military commander?
Someone whose followers regarded him as having a special religious status?
The evidence does not allow us to answer confidently.
And we do not know how his leadership in Cyrene related to the events unfolding in Egypt.
Reconstructing a War from Ancient Documents
One of the most fascinating parts of our conversation concerned the evidence for the scale of the destruction.
Professor Ilan discussed inscriptions from Cyrene recording the restoration of structures damaged during the revolt.
These included references to rebuilding roads, temples, and other public works.
The inscriptions show that the violence was substantial enough to require major reconstruction.
They also preserve the perspective of the authorities who rebuilt these places after the rebellion.
In Egypt, the papyri offer another window into the conflict.
One document refers to an annual celebration commemorating victory over the Jews.
Other records describe disruptions to travel.
People could not always move safely along roads and sometimes had to rely on boats.
The conflict was affecting ordinary movement, commerce, and communication.
Professor Ilan also discussed a remarkable collection of private letters.
They were written by a mother to her son, an official involved in the fighting.
She worried constantly about his safety.
She warned him to be careful and expressed her fear of the dangers posed by the revolt.
How Serious Was the Fighting?
Another document discussed in the interview concerns Roman military recruitment.
Professor Ilan describes a papyrus recording an unusually large number of new soldiers entering a military unit during the revolt.
She suggests that the scale of recruitment may indicate heavy Roman casualties.
The document does not provide a straightforward count of soldiers killed in battle.
But it suggests that the military establishment faced substantial demands for replacements.
This is important because the Diaspora Revolt is sometimes overshadowed by the better-known wars in Judea.
The surviving evidence indicates that the fighting in Egypt and neighboring regions was serious.
Roman authorities faced not merely isolated unrest but a conflict that disrupted infrastructure, threatened officials, and required considerable military resources.
The Mystery of Mesopotamia
The revolt also took place during Trajan's campaign to conquer Mesopotamia.
Roman armies had advanced into the region, but their attempt to establish lasting control encountered resistance.
Professor Ilan explains that ancient sources refer to Jewish participation in the uprisings there.
But they also indicate that other populations were involved.
This makes the Mesopotamian situation different from the evidence we possess for Egypt.
We know very little about the specific role of Jewish communities in the fighting.
Professor Ilan suggests that their participation may have contributed to the difficulties Trajan faced.
But she is careful not to claim more than the sources allow.
What we can say is that the Diaspora Revolt coincided with a major imperial crisis in the East.
And this brings us to perhaps the most puzzling question of the entire episode.
How Could Jews Rebel Across Such Enormous Distances?
Jewish uprisings occurred in Egypt, Cyrene, Cyprus, and Mesopotamia.
These regions were separated by considerable distances.
How did this happen?
Was there a centralized plan?
Did Jewish leaders communicate across the empire?
Were these uprisings coordinated through networks connecting Diaspora communities?
Or did similar pressures and grievances produce separate outbreaks of violence during a moment of Roman vulnerability?
When I asked Professor Ilan, she was remarkably candid.
She said she could not answer the question.
The surviving sources simply do not provide enough information.
And there is another problem.
What was happening in Judea?
If there was a coordinated rebellion across the Jewish world, why do we lack comparable evidence of a major uprising there during these years?
And why would Judean Jews launch another revolt under Bar Kokhba less than two decades later?
These questions make it difficult to imagine a straightforward, centrally organized rebellion.
But the geographical spread of the violence is also difficult to explain.
The honest historical answer is that we do not know.
Did Rome Learn from the Diaspora Revolt?
The final part of our conversation concerned the relationship between the Diaspora Revolt and the later Bar Kokhba Revolt.
Trajan died in 117 CE, and Hadrian became emperor.
Roughly fifteen years later, another major Jewish uprising erupted in Judea.
Professor Ilan suggests that the earlier rebellion may have shaped how Roman authorities understood the later one.
The Romans had already confronted a widespread Jewish revolt and inflicted enormous damage on Jewish communities in several regions.
They may have believed that the threat of another major uprising had been eliminated.
But the Bar Kokhba Revolt demonstrated that Jewish resistance had not ended.
Professor Ilan considers whether this experience influenced the determination with which Hadrian suppressed the rebellion.
She also discusses Jewish traditions describing Roman restrictions on religious practices after the war, including circumcision and Sabbath observance.
The details and historical reliability of these traditions remain debated.
But the broader question is compelling.
Did the repeated experience of Jewish rebellion lead Roman authorities to adopt increasingly severe measures?
We cannot establish a direct causal relationship.
Why This Forgotten Revolt Deserves More Attention
What stayed with me after this conversation was the enormous gap between the revolt's historical significance and its place in popular memory.
The First Jewish Revolt is remembered because of the destruction of the Second Temple.
The Bar Kokhba Revolt is remembered because of its leader and the devastating Roman campaign in Judea.
But the Diaspora Revolt left its own catastrophic legacy.
In Egypt, one of the great centers of ancient Jewish civilization, the documentary evidence for Jewish communal life changed dramatically.
Across other regions, inscriptions and ancient narratives preserve traces of violence, destruction, and reconstruction.
And in Mesopotamia, Jewish resistance became entangled with one of Rome's most ambitious eastern campaigns.
Yet so much remains uncertain.
We do not know whether the uprisings were coordinated.
We cannot reconstruct a single shared ideology.
We cannot confidently measure the full human cost.
And we still struggle to understand how the revolt affected Jewish communities in regions where little evidence survives.
Perhaps that is what makes the episode especially valuable.
The Diaspora Revolt of 115–117 CE: Frequently Asked Questions
1. What was the Diaspora Revolt?
The Diaspora Revolt was a series of Jewish uprisings against Roman authority between approximately 115 and 117 CE. The conflicts affected Egypt, Cyrene, Cyprus, and Mesopotamia during the reign of Emperor Trajan.
2. Why is the Diaspora Revolt called the Kitos War?
The name Kitos War is associated with Lusius Quietus, a Roman military commander involved in suppressing resistance during the period. The designation is commonly used for the Jewish uprisings of 115–117 CE.
3. What caused the Diaspora Revolt?
Its precise causes remain debated. Professor Tal Ilan discusses longstanding anti-Jewish hostility, violence in Roman Egypt, the destruction of Jewish religious institutions, and the fiscus Judaicus, a tax imposed after the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple.
4. Where did the Diaspora Revolt take place?
Major outbreaks occurred in Cyrene in modern Libya, Egypt, and Cyprus. Ancient sources also describe Jewish participation in resistance to Trajan's campaign in Mesopotamia.
5. Who led the Diaspora Revolt?
Ancient sources identify a leader in Cyrene under names including Andreas and Lukuas. The evidence does not establish a single leader who commanded the uprisings across all regions.
6. Was the Diaspora Revolt coordinated?
We do not know. The geographical spread of the revolt raises the possibility of communication among Jewish communities, but surviving sources do not demonstrate centralized leadership or a unified plan.
7. What happened to the Jews of Egypt after the revolt?
The surviving papyri show a dramatic decline in evidence for Jewish individuals and communal institutions after 115–117 CE. This suggests severe disruption, although it does not prove that every Jew in Egypt was killed or expelled.
8. What was the fiscus Judaicus?
The fiscus Judaicus was a special tax imposed on Jews after the Roman destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 CE. The proceeds were directed toward the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus in Rome.
9. Did the Jews have a temple in Egypt?
Yes. A Jewish temple associated with Onias existed in the eastern Nile Delta. Roman authorities ordered it closed following the First Jewish Revolt, generally dated to 73 CE.
10. Was the Diaspora Revolt inspired by messianic beliefs?
The evidence is inconclusive. Professor Ilan notes that the surviving Egyptian documentation does not clearly reveal an apocalyptic program, although some accounts from Cyrene describe a prominent rebel leader.
11. How destructive was the Diaspora Revolt?
Ancient inscriptions record the restoration of structures damaged during the rebellion. Egyptian papyri also document disruptions to travel, public life, and military administration. The full scale of casualties remains uncertain.
12. Did Jewish rebels defeat Roman legions?
The surviving evidence does not establish the destruction of a specific Roman legion. Professor Ilan discusses a recruitment document that may indicate substantial Roman military losses.
13. How did the revolt affect Trajan's campaign in Mesopotamia?
Ancient sources report Jewish participation in resistance to Roman expansion in Mesopotamia. That resistance formed part of a wider crisis that undermined Trajan's attempt to establish lasting Roman control, although the Jewish contribution cannot be precisely measured.
14. How was the Diaspora Revolt different from the Great Jewish Revolt?
The Great Revolt of 66–73 CE centered on Judea and included the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple. The Diaspora Revolt occurred decades later and involved Jewish communities across several widely separated regions of the Roman world.
15. Did the Diaspora Revolt influence the Bar Kokhba Revolt?
Professor Ilan suggests that the earlier revolt may have influenced Roman expectations and the later response to Jewish resistance under Hadrian. However, a direct causal relationship cannot be established from the surviving evidence.
