Major conflict66 CE – 135 CE · 69 years
Jewish-Roman Wars
Judea · Palestine
Jewish revolts against Roman occupation caused catastrophic destruction and scattered the Jewish diaspora across the Mediterranean.
Estimated casualties
300K – 1.7Mestimated dead
HEADLINE600K — the single figure used on the map
Josephus (1.1M, 66-73) and Cassius Dio (580k, 132-135) are considered inflated
SOURCEJosephus; Clodfelter
What happened
The First Jewish-Roman War (66-73 CE) began as a revolt against Roman taxation and repression. Jewish forces held Jerusalem and fortified towns against Roman legions. General (later Emperor) Titus besieged Jerusalem (70 CE) and destroyed the Second Temple, a catastrophic blow to Jewish civilization. Masada, the last Jewish stronghold, fell in 73 CE. A Second Revolt (132-135 CE) under Bar Kokhba was also crushed with similar brutality. The wars killed hundreds of thousands of Jews; the destruction of the Temple fundamentally transformed Judaism, shifting from temple-based sacrifice to synagogue-based prayer and study.
Why it mattered
The Jewish-Roman Wars scattered the Jewish people across the Mediterranean and beyond, creating the diaspora. The destruction of the Temple transformed Judaism religiously and culturally. The wars established Christian separation from Judaism and contributed to the early Christian movement's identity. The wars demonstrated Rome's capacity for brutal suppression of rebellious provinces. The Jewish diaspora's subsequent development shaped medieval and modern Jewish history.
Belligerents2
- Roman Empire
- Jewish kingdoms
ON THE MAPRoman Empire (Augustus)
Conflict graph
SUB-CONFLICTS · 1
- Kitos War115–117 CE
Sources
- Wikipedia: Jewish-Roman Wars
- Clodfelter, Warfare and Armed Conflicts (4th ed., 2017)
- Wikipedia — text reused under CC BY-SA 4.0
Open in the atlas →Seeks the timeline to 66 CE and opens this record.
Cite as: Jewish-Roman Wars (66 CE – 135 CE). War Atlas. https://waratlas.org/c/jewish-roman-wars · Sources & methodology