The Diaspora Revolt

In 115 CE, the eighteenth year of Trajan’s reign (r. 98–117 CE), the Jews of Cyrene, led by a figure named Lucuas or Andreas (or both), begin to attack their Greek and Roman neighbors. From there, the violence spreads to Egypt, Cyprus, and the Thebaid. In Egypt, at least, these events occur in the aftermath of long-deteriorating relations between Jews and Alexandrians, and the Jewish attack on the Greeks was likely precipitated by earlier Greek attacks on the Jews. The late ancient historian of Rome Dio Cassius (ca. 155–ca. 235 CE) describes atrocities reportedly committed by Jews in rebellion against Rome. The descriptions of violence seem hyperbolic, with claims that the Jews committed, among other crimes, cannibalism. Such accusations fit well with Dio Cassius’ portraits of other rebellious people considered “barbarians,” such as the Britons and the Bucoli.

The early fourth-century Christian historian Eusebius frames these events within the larger context of Christian expansion across the Roman Empire, juxtaposed to a perceived state of inevitable Jewish decline. He adds that it is out of concern that the rebellion will spread to Mesopotamia that Trajan authorizes the murder of Jews living there, appointing the head of that operation governor over Judaea.

The Greek historian Appian was present in Egypt during the time of the Jewish uprisings in Alexandria. Unfortunately, what remains of his writings offers few substantive details regarding the causes or chronology of the uprisings. The final line of this text refers to Trajan’s campaign to quell Jewish insurrection in Egypt and characterizes Trajan’s goal to be to exterminate the Jews in Egypt.

Jerome’s Chronicon, which was mainly a Latin translation of Eusebius’ Greek chronicle from 311 CE, translated into Latin around 380 CE, recounts these events quite methodically but offers no explanations or interpretations. Paulus Orosius describes these Jewish revolts in terms of other catastrophes that befall the Roman Empire, as retribution for its persecution of Christians.