The Genocide of the Jewish People by the Roman Empire / DR.Rivka Shpak Lissak

June 21 2011
The Roman Empire committed a genocide of the Jewish People under its Occupation of the Land Of Israel.
From about 3,000,000 Jews in the First century CE, about 200,000 survived until the 7th century, most of them killed or enslaved.

The Roman occupation (63 BCE – 324 CE) proved a calamity for the Jewish people. The Romans destroyed Jewish independence and canceled its population majority in Israel.

Following the Great Revolt (66 – 70 CE), and increasingly after the Bar Cochva revolt (132 – 135 CE), the Roman policy as dictated from above was to turn the Jews into a minority in their land, and to eliminate the rebellious Jewish nationality.

For a while, the Romans also tried to force the Jews to integrate into the Hellenistic culture through religious persecution.

Rebellions
The Jews never accepted the loss of their national independence, or the colonization of their country by Greeks, Macedonians, Romans and Aramaic- Syrians, or the religious persecution. They ignored Rome’s stronger position and rose against its rule again and again, throughout the Roman occupation:

57 BCE: Rebellion against Gabinius, following his raiding the Temple riches.
54 BCE: Rebellion against Crassus, following his raiding the Temple riches.
66-70 CE (fall of Massada 73CE): The Great Revolt, motivated by the desire to throw off the bondage of Roman occupation, as well as for religious reasons.
115-117 CE: Rebellion against Trayanus, erupted in Israel and other places in the Empire, following Lucius Quitus’ appointment as Proconsul in Judaea (having cruelly crushed the Jewish revolt in Messopotamia) and his policies.
132-135 CE: Bar Cochva revolt against the Hellenisation of Provincia Judea.

The Roman Empire suppressed the revolts by slaughtering, and wiping out of entire villages and cities, enslaving thousand hundreds of prisoners of war, and chasing many others to run away to save their lives.

On the eve of the Great Revolt against the Roman occupation of Israel (66 BCE) the total population was between 3,000,000 to 4,000,000, the majority 75% of whom Jews. After the revolt was suppressed the number of Jews was reduced to about 1,500,000.

At the break-out of the Bar Cochva (132 CE) the Jewish population of Israel numbered 1,300,000, and was less than 50% of the country’s total population. By the time the revolt was suppressed, between 700,000 and 800,000 Jews were left.

By the 7th century only 150,000 to 200,000 Jews survived.

What happened to the Jewish majority in Israel during these less than 200 years?

I. Exiled war prisoners

The Roman economy was based on slave labor, supplied by war prisoners sold in slave markets throughout the Roman Empire. Between 63 BCE and 135 CE, the Romans sold into slavery about 250,000 Jews from Israel:

The number of slaves sold by Pompeius after his conquest of the Jewish state in 63 BCE is not clear, although it is known that Jewish war prisoners were paraded in his march of victory.

In 54 BCE, Marcus Liquinius Crassus transferred 30,000 Jewish prisoners of war to Rome after suppressing a revolt that erupted because of his attempt to rob the Temple’s riches.

According to Josephus Flavius the number of prisoners of war from the Great Revolt was 97,000, five thousand of whom were given to Emperor Nero as slaves after the conquest of the area surrounding the Sea of Galilee.

No formal data exists for the number of slaves Caesar Adrian transferred to the Roman markets, but it is known that the price of slaves dropped markedly due to the large number of Jews sold into slavery. A reasonable estimate places the number at 100,000. This estimate is based on the following data: Before the revolt, there were 1.3 Jews in Israel. Between 400,000 (according to a Jewish source) and 580,000 (according to Dio Cassius, a Roman historian) were killed and murdered during the revolt, leaving about 700,000-800,000 alive after it was suppressed. The 100,000-200,000 difference may be the number of Jews who fled the fighting and those who were sold into slavery.

According to Josephus Flavius, prior to the Great Revolt there were 204 Jewish villages and cities in the Galilee.
Prior to the Bar Cochva revolt there were 63 Jewish villages and cities in the Galilee.
What happened to 141 Jewish settlements in 60 years (between 70CE and 130CE)?

After the Bar Cochva revolt, in 135CE 56 Jewish settlements were left standing. What happened to 7 settlements in 3 years?

The Roman historian Dio Cassius tells us that during the Bar Cochva Revolt, 985 Jewish settlements in the Land of Israel were demolished by the Roman army. The Judaea district was emptied of Jews as a result of the killings, murders, demolitions, and the policy of turning Judaea and its capital Aelia Capitolina (formerly Jerusalem) into a Jewish-free zone.

II. Casualties

The number of casualties – killed, or murdered – as part of suppressing the revolts was one of the causes of the decrease in Jewish population.

The Great Revolt (66 – 70 CE)

The proconsul Florrus killed 3,600 Jews in Jerusalem in 66CE, even before the outbreak of the Great Revolt.
When Castius Gallus conquered Jaffa, his legionnaires killed 8,400 of the city’s Jews.
In Gaza, 4,200 Jews were murdered.
In Beit Shean (Skitopolis ) 13,000 Jews were murdered by their Hellenistic neigbours, who cooperated with the Romans.
In Beit Guvrin 10,000 Jews were killed by the Roman Army.
In Gamla, 5,000 jumped off the cliff to avoid being taken prisoners, while 4,000 were slaughtered by the Romans.
Josephus Flavius tells how the Sea of Galilee turned red from blood following the Roman conquest of the area. We know that the Romans killed 1,200 of the elderly and the sick.

A quarter of the Jewish population was killed, i.e., at least 750,000 casualties.

Bar Cochva Revolt (132 – 135 CE)

During the Bar Cochva revolt casualties numbered between 400,000 (Jewish source) and 580,000 (Dio Cassius). Beitar was the site of a cruel massacre, and Jewish sources, in a literary attempt to describe the extent of the horrors, speak of blood reaching to the knees of the Roman horses.

III. Jews were forced to leave

The Sea Ports of the Mediterranean Sea were over crowded by Jewish refugees from Provincia Judea who ran because of the war (132 – 135 CE).

Economic and religious Reasons

In addition to those who were killed or sold into slavery, there were many Jews who were forced to leave the country because of the religious and economic policies carried out by the Romans.

Israel’s economic state influenced its status as leader of the Jewish world. After Rabbi Yehuda Hanassi died, the Presidency began to lose its influence and the Rabbis (the Wise Men) gained greater status, while the Jewish center in Babylon began to grow in strength.

In summary, the dwindling of Jewish population in the Land of Israel during the Roman period and the creating of the Diaspora were a direct result of Roman policies, which aimed not only to destroy the national independence of the Jews, but to turn them into a minority in their own land by means of land confiscations, heavy taxes, foreign colonization, cruel suppression of revolts, and breaking their national and cultural spirit. Hundreds of thousands were killed, murdered, and died of hunger and disease, hundreds of thousands of prisoners of war were sold into slavery, and many fled the religious and economic persecution.

The genocide of the Jewish people never ceased. Thousands of Jews were killed in pogroms in Europe during the Middle Ages. 6,000,000 were exterminated during the Holocaust, and now Jews are still in danger by the Arab- Muslim hatred, in Israel and in Europe.


Ethnic Clensing

Hi,

I was educated with the impression that ethnic cleansing around what we are taught to call "the Jewish Wars" went both ways. That there were Jews who slaughtered the greco-roman populations wholesale and the other way around--as you so aptly point out. I was also under the impression that a number of messianic leaders who thought they were reestablishing the Davidic monarchy arose and in their zeal to achieve racial (?) and religious purity they did a real number on the temples and the families of their adversaries. Your comment would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

John

John: Roman Empire : elimination of Jewish state and culture

In those days massacredes were a norm.
But there is a difference between killing people and a policy intended to eliminate the Jewish state, turning the Jews into a minority and changing the ethnic and cultural composition of the land of Judea.

2 books on Bar KOKHBA REVOLT 132 - 135

Ydin Yigael, Bar Kokbha, 1971
Schafer, Peter, ed, The Bar Kokba War,2003

Jacob, 2 books on the great revolt 66-70

S.Safrai and M.Stern,eds, The Jewish People in the First Century,1976
The Great Revolt in the Galilee, 2008 ISBN 965-7034-18-3
Yoy will find there more biblio.

Jewish Popluation after the Bar Kochba revolt

Hi Rivka:

I am currently doing research on the Jewish population during and after the Bar Kochba Revolt and its causes. I found this article very helpful as you list out a number of reasons the Jews were forced to flee the land of Israel. You write the following:

The Sea Ports of the Mediterranean Sea were over crowded by Jewish refugees from Judea, who ran because of the war (132-135 CE).

In summary, the dwindling of Jewish population in the Land of Israel during the Roman period and the creating of the Diaspora were a direct result of Roman policies, which aimed not only to destroy the national independence of the Jews, but to turn them into a minority in their own land by means of land confiscations, heavy taxes, foreign colonization, cruel suppression of revolts, and breaking their national and cultural spirit. Hundreds of thousands were killed, murdered, and died of hunger and disease, hundreds of thousands of prisoners of war were sold into slavery, and many fled the religious and economic persecution.

I would greatly appreciate if you can tell me the historical source for all of these statements. I could not find them in any of the classic Jewish histories.

Thanks Jacob

Jacob, I can give you bibliography in Hebrew

Do you read Hebrew?
I"LL look for biblio. in English and let you know.

you can ask for books in every university library

where do you live?

Jewish after the Bar Kochba revolt

I live in the Boro Park Section of Brooklyn

So you are Jacob. Do you read Hebrew?

There are so many studies on Bar Kochba/kokbha in Hebrew

Bar Kochba

Yes - I read Hebrew

I"LL SEND YOU A LARGE BIBLI. IN HEBREW. NEED YOUR EMAIL

iF YOU WILL GIVE ME YOUR EMAIL I"LL SEND YOU BIBLIO.

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