Like many others, the kingdoms of Iudaea and Nabatene were annexed to the Roman empire in retaliation of their support for Traianus.
In 836 reigned Herodes Agrippa II although for some times, his son, the prince Herodes Agrippa III, was the real holder of the power. Herod Agrippa III was ambitious. Had he chosen the good side during the civil war, he might have been a new Herod the Great.
The fall was great.
But he wasn't a man who abandon, and soon began to plot to recover the throne.
He tried to excite his jewish coreligionists against the roman 'invader'. He even attempted contacts with the Parthians to organize an open revolt.
The conditions of the uprising weren't gathered together before late 839.
At this time, the brutal repression by Lucius Iulius Alexander of the northern mesopotamian cities shocked the Jews living inside the Roman Empire especially since these towns were inhabited by great jewish populations.
What's more, the local procurator, Marcus Ambrusius Secundus, my great-grandfather, was a little inept because little expert of the jewish habits and customs. If he had known that almost two centuries and a half before, the conflict between traditionnalist and hellenized Jews had led to an uprising which had ended the seleucid rule, he would never have favoured the latters.
So, a day of december 839, when an Hellenist sacrificed several birds in front of a synagogue of Caesarea, rendering the building ritually unclean, riots broke out and quickly spread across Iudaea and the roman officials were forced to flee Hierosolyma, where Herodes Agrippa III, his father having died a few months earlier, crowned himself King of the Jews and launched a call to his subjects to join him to expulse the Romans as they had expulsed the Seleucids. Several even say that the sacrifice was a set-up of Agrippa.
The legate of Syria Lucius Flavius Silva attempted to restore order and was initially successfull in relieving Caesarea and reaching Hierosolyma. However, his single legion and its auxiliaries weren't able to retake the jewish capital and his assault upon the Temple Mount having failed, he decided to withdraw to the coast and wait for reinforcements.
He never saw the sea.
The Romans were ambushed at the pass of Beth Horon and massacred; only a few hundreds of men managed to flee.
This great roman defeat encouraged the other jewish communities to rise up: uprisings soon occured in Galileia and spread to Cyprus, Egypt and Cyrenaica.
Only Samareia remained loyal because of a religious antagonism and traditionnal enmity with the other Jews.
The following months saw other successes for the rebels.
The nobles of Nabatene, wanting to restore their former independance rallied them. While they were reduced to the coasts in Cyrenaica, the Romans were totally thrown out of Cyprus. In Aegyptus, even the town of Alexandria was briefly taken.
But these successes were short-lived.
In may 840, Vespasianus Caesar appointed Lucius Iulius Alexander, with an exceptionnal overall command over the rebelled provinces plus Syria. The first action undertook was to relieve Caesarea which was besieged again, even before that reinforcements from the rhenish and danubian limites were sent.
In the first times, Alexander concentrated his efforts on pacifying Egypt, one of the wheat lofts of Roma, and supressing the nascent piracy led by the Jews to harass grain supply and demoralize the Romans.
He landed near Alexandria with five legions while three other were sent to reconquer Cyprus, and by late summer, the two provinces had been subdued.
The represion was of a scale never seen and was impressive especially since Alexander's ancestors were jewish. The Jews were pursued in the greater witch hunt of the history. In every town and village, people and soldiers killed them without distinctions, men, wifes or children.
The jewish community which remained in Egypt after the revolt was only a fraction of what it had been before and took several centuries to recover.
Thus was also the fate of the rebels during the following roman reconquests.
During autumn and winter, while Cyrenaica was invaded, four legions with the support of the roman navy marched down the coast, capturing Apollonia, Ioppe and Azotus, thus eliminating the jewish pirats.
In spring 841, Alexander began a serie of devastating raids in Iudaea where entire villages were burnt, but the main offensive was undertook in Galileia.
However, it was far to be as easy as in the previous actions. During almost a year, every great towns of the jewish kingdom had improved their defences, and when they arrived, the Romans found as many fortresses. So, the conquest was very long.
By june, Sepphoris was taken as Iotapata after two months of siege.
The following months, as the peace had been signed with the Parthians, Alexander received reinforcements which grew his forces to thirteen legions.
He profited of his numerical superiority to besiege simultaneously Tiberias, Tarichaea, Giscala, Gamala and Bostra.
The only attempt to relieve Galileian towns by the Iudaeans occured in late september but was easily defeated at the battle of Sebaste.
Despite of their fierce resistance, these towns were all fallen by early winter.
In spring 842, Alexander divided again his forces, launching five legions at the conquest of Perea while he attacked towards Hierosolyma.
He quickly took Antipatris, then Lydda and Thamna in april but had to besiege Gophna and Emmaus, for one week in each town. At the same time, Iericho was fallen by the second group of legions.
Hierosolyma was reached in mid-july.
The fights lasted six weeks but finally, the Romans were victorious.
The entire town,and the Temple, were razed to the ground, and its population was or enslaved or massacred.
In late august, Machaerus fell also.
Thereafter, Alexander undertook the pacification of Idumea, and by early 843, only Masada and Petra still resisted . The former was taken in july, and the latter, in september.
As for Herodes Agrippa III, he attempted to flee in Parthia but disappeared in the sands of the arabian desert.
The roman provinces of Iudaea and Nabatene were thus pacified, but at a great cost.
Still today, we can see the marks of the devastation. It's one of the poorer and less populated provinces of the Empire.
After the uprising, the number of legions which had begun to decrease as the Romans progressed in their reconquest was reduced to two in garrison.
Vespasianus Caesar built in the ashes of Hierosolyma a colony, without fortifications, dedicated to Iupiter Capitolinus, a temple being building for him at the place of the former jewish Temple.
Flavia Capitolina was the garrison location of one of the two Iudaean legions, whose veterans had to settle there, and was forbidden to the Jews with death penalty for trespassers.
