Notable events already observed with reference to Judaea between 115 and 118, therefore, were the reinforcement of the Roman forces in Jerusalem, the appointment of Lusius Quietus as governor of the province, and the erection of pagan shrines in the holy city. On the Jewish side, we hear remote echoes of the presence of the Cyrenean leader, Lucuas, in the country, and of the operations of Lulianus and Pappus, directed, apparently, to the infiltration of Jews from outside Judaea. Archaeology has further revealed signs of disorder at Jaffa and Gerasa.
The tradition of Seder ‛Olam Rabba[1768] places the beginning of “Pulmus Qitos” in 116, but according to the chronology of the Parthian War as restored by Longden and others,[1769] Lusius Quietus, after his military successes in Mesopotamia, was appointed to govern Judaea at the end of 116 or at the beginning of 117. His consular rank,[1770] unusual in a praetorian province, if not the result of a previous administrative change, hints at the gravity of the situation in Judaea, and perhaps at the presence of more than one legion stationed in the country to hold down the Jewish population.[1771] A detachment of III Cyrenaica, at any rate, set up an inscription at Jerusalem not earlier than 116. On the other hand, on the assumption that the revolt had come to a final end in Egypt in August 117, it is to be supposed that Lucuas penetrated Judaea at the head of the remnants of his warriors latest by summer of that year. But as the Jewish movement in Cyprus had been liquidated not later than early 117, we have to place the beginning of the activities of Lulianus and Pappus in organizing entry into the country and to Jerusalem from Cyprus, in 116. Their capture by Quietus belongs to the beginning of Hadrian’s reign (which began in July, 117) before the execution of the Judaean governor,[1772] and the prolongation of seditious activity in the country after Trajan’s death is confirmed by the Historia Augusta[1773] and by the tradition of Seder ’Olam Rabba which sets the end of the “Pulmus Qitos” in 118.[1774]
Among the centres of ferment and revolt may be noted, beside Bethar and Jaffa, also Darom, the southern region between Eleuthe-ropolis (Beth Govrin) and the Nabataean frontier. Schlatter[1775] and Alon[1776] have demonstrated, against the view of Bacher and others, that the killing of R. Ishmael preceded the Ben Kosba war, and both scholars associate the event with the “Pulmus Qitos”. If R. Ishmael, who lived at Kefar ’Aziz in the Darom on the Idumaean frontier, was the R. Ishmael put to death with R. Sime’on, as Schlatter and apparently Alon think, then it is evident that the south of the country was also in revolt or near to it. This is hardly surprising if we recall what Appian relates[1777] concerning his flight to the desert near Pelusium, namely, that numerous Jewish rebels were at large in the neighbourhood — i.e. in the Sinai desert.
In summing up, we may propose the following chronological order for events in Judaea in the years 115-118. Ferment began in the country as early as 116, evidently due to the agrarian situation and under the influence of events abroad. Not earlier than the same year, Roman reinforcements were sent to Jerusalem, and active erection of pagan shrines is perceptible. In early 117, if not before, had begun the activity of Lulianus and Pappus, directed to the infiltration of Jews into Judaea and Jerusalem, and at the end of 116 or in early 117 Quietus was appointed governor of Judaea to suppress the rising which had broken out or was likely to break out. We have to place the incursion and death of Lucuas not later than mid-summer, 117, but Lulianus and Pappus do not appear to have been executed before July, 118. We are not in a position to date the supposed outbreak at Jaffa, but it would be natural to see it as the result of the capture of Pelusium by the Egyptian Jews, probably before the Roman victory near Memphis in the first months of 117, which closed the sea-route as a way of access to the coast of Judaea. If our chronological reconstruction is anywhere near the truth, the conclusion becomes reasonable that Quietus was not despatched to Judaea to prevent a rising, but because it had already begun, so that the operations of the Roman commander were directed to restricting its scope and putting it down. The critical moment seems to have been in the earlier half of 117, with the outbreak of disorders at Jaffa and the arrival of Lucuas, if such a break-in ever did take place.
5. Summing Up
An examination of the physiography of Cyrenaica and the factors which moulded her settlement and economy, has shown that the seasonal cycle and the two forms of economy inherent in the conditions of the country have exercized a decisive influence on her history, causing a constant tension and a repeated oscillation between mixed farming and the raising of livestock, between settled agriculture and nomadic pastoralism. The concentration of the Jewish peasantry on the state lands, which were more sensitive than any other category to the results of the above alternation, as most of them were on the desert fringes, open to political vicissitudes and the arbitrary character of the rulers — caused the Jews to suffer to a greater degree than other elements from a reaction in favour of pastoralism and extensive agriculture at the end of Ptolemaic rule and at the beginning of Roman domination.
The process of the restoration of the intensive economy took place in a period of growing conflict between Rome and the Jewish people. Nero’s decision concerning tenant rights on the state domain was directed to the advantage of the population which had not suffered in this way, namely, the private landowners, which meant the Greek citizens of Cyrene. The penetration of extremist influence during the Great Rebellion of 66-73 therefore found a fertile field of activity among the multitude of landless and impoverished Jews in the country.
An analysis of the events of 73 at Cyrene has proved important in that it has revealed the close connection between them and activist revolutionary trends that fostered the messianic movement in Judaea; the same events led to the annihilation of the hellenizing class of Cyrenaican Jewry, and thereby prepared the way for the rising of 115, since it left no buffer element between the Jewish masses and activist influence. The points of contact between the acts of Jonathan the Weaver and the ideology of Hirbet Qum-ran, chiefly as it is expressed in the scroll of “The War of the Sons of Light with the Sons of Darkness”, prove, with other features of the rebellion under Trajan, the Sicarian content of the movement; Eusebius’ reports on the movement’s activity in the Western Desert and in the Thebais point to concentrations of insurgents on the desert fringes and to their penetration into Egypt along the desert routes.
1769
1771
For discussion of the status and forces of Judaea after 70, see n. 248 to p. 300. (Ch. VIII, § v).