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Tcherikover and Fuks[1567] have surveyed the geographical extent of the rebellion in the rural areas and provincial towns of Egypt, in so far as the information is furnished by papyrological and literary sources, and at present little can be added to their list.

Appian informs us of fighting in Pelusium; he himself escaped from the rebels who had seized control of the town and held the roads in the vicinity.[1568] According to Appian[1569] Hadrian restored the tomb of Pompey near Pelusium on his visit to Egypt in 130; its statues had evidently been damaged, and this is fair evidence that the monument had suffered at Jewish hands.[1570] We hear of Jewish lands in the Athribis district which were confiscated after the revolt.[1571] In Memphis a battle was fought between the Jews and the Romans;[1572] in Fayyum damage to agricultural property is recorded,[1573] and Jewish property was also confiscated in the district of Heracleopolitis.[1574] Buildings burnt by the Jews are mentioned at Oxyrhinchos, where a festival commemorating a victory over them was still being celebrated in the year 199-200.[1575] Lands were also confiscated from Jews in the Caenopolite nome;[1576] in the Hermopolitis fighting and damage to property are further recorded.[1577] Orosius, Eusebius and Syncellus all inform us of fighting in the Thebais,[1578] and papyri tell of disorders in the nomes of the Lykeopolitis and Apollinopolitis.[1579] We may here add that payment of the Jewish tax ceased in Apollinopolis Parva (Tell Edfu) in the year 116, hence we may assume that the rebellion extended to that town,[1580] PSI 1063, dated in September 117 shows that a Roman cohort (see p. 314), had suffered numerous casualties in the fighting, probably in Upper Egypt. Further, the appearance of Libya in Eusebius’ list enumerating the centres of the rebellion,[1581] must be interpreted to mean that the movement manifested itself also in the Western Desert between Egypt and Cyrenaica (see p. 315).

Fuks sums up by saying:[1582] “This evidence largely corroborates Orosius: ‘Aegyptum vero totam... cruentis seditionibus turbaverunt’”.

iii. Cyprus

The chief source for the outbreak in Cyprus is the historian Dio, who writes that the insurgents placed themselves under a leader, Artemion, and slew 240,000 gentiles.[1583] Among the cities destroyed by them only Salamis is mentioned,[1584] although it is clear from the number of casualties that the movement spread over the entire island, since Dio records 220,000 victims in Cyrenaica, and even if these numbers are exaggerated, the extensive devastation of that territory has been demonstrated.[1585]

On the effects of the tumultus on the island we may first quote Vessberg,[1586] who writes in relation to the rebellion: “It is therefore not merely fortuitous that the archaeological material appears to be meagre for the Hadrianic epoch. The inscriptions are few from that time, and, as far as I am aware, it has not been possible to point to a Cypriote coinage under Hadrian.” One inscription, probably from Salamis, dating from the time of Trajan or Hadrian, almost certainly relates to restoration work after 117.[1587] It speaks of the rebuilding of the Temple of Zeus by a man who is “in charge of the project” (ἐπιμελητὴν τοῦ ἔργου) — indicating that it was on a considerable scale.

A second inscription from Salamis, a dedication by the city to Hadrian in the year 129-130, apparently also reflects conditions after the revolt:[1588] the city here calls the Emperor “its own saviour” (τώι ῖδίω]ι σωτῆρι), and while the term is not uncommonly applied to Hadrian, we may think that it bore special significance in Cyprus in the years after the devastation of 116-117. The excavations at Salamis have not yet detected many signs of the devastation testified to by Dio, but the reason may be the lack of interest in the event manifested by former investigators. Karageorghis, on the other hand, has now published several suggestive indications furnished by the city’s contemporary sculpture. One of them, a statue representing an emperor of the Flavian house, or alternatively Hadrian, was found to have been severely damaged, the figures of the deities on its cuirass having suffered most of the damage.[1589] Karageorghis inclines to the view that the statue is a portrait of a Flavian emperor, and that the defacing of the divine figures was Jewish work. Another discovery is part of the head of a male statue repaired in antiquity, the damage being attributable, on Karageorghis’ suggestion, to the period of the revolt.[1590]

In a Hadrianic inscription found at Carpasia, the Emperor is called — assuming the editor’s restoration is correct — “Saviour and benefactor of the entire world” (τὸν σωτήρα καὶ] εὐεργέτην τοῦ κόσμου).[1591] Mitford remarks, with reference to the fate of Salamis, that “There is no reason to suspect that Karpasia shared either these misfortunes or these benefactions”. A third inscription, which honours Hadrian with similar epithets, is known at Lapethos,[1592] being dedicated by the council and people of the town. The supposition that these terms have no inevitable connection with work of restoration after the revolt is doubtless admissible, but it is going too far to state dogmatically that such a connection was impossible; the possibility is considerable if the numerous casualties caused by the rising are taken into account. It should further be noted that a Greek inscription is known from Lapethos evidencing the existence there of a Jewish synagogue; it cannot be precisely dated, but it was certainly after the rebellion.[1593] But in this context it should not be forgotten that there was a tendency to re-establish Jewish settlements on sites where they had formerly existed, (cf. below, the case of Golgoi). Another inscription from Soli, already mentioned (p. 269), is mutilated and incomplete, but seems to have commemorated the erection of a statue to Trajan, together, perhaps, with the dedication of a shrine. The date is the twentieth year of his reign, i.e. between September, 116 and August, 117. Soli was the location of the copper-mines leased by Augustus to Herod in return for half their proceeds,[1594] and it is therefore probable that a Jewish population (criminals condemned to work in the mines?) was present here.