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As the rebellion of the Jews at this time grew much more serious,
Rufus, governor of Judea, after an auxiliary force had been sent him
by the emperor, using their madness as a pretext, proceeded against
them without mercy, and destroyed indiscriminately thousands of men and
women and children, and in accordance with the laws of war reduced
their country to a state of complete subjection. The leader of the
Jews at this time was a man by the name of Barcocheba , who possessed
the character of a robber and a murderer, but nevertheless, relying
upon his name, boasted to them, as if they were slaves, that he
possessed wonderful powers; and he pretended that he was a star that
had come down to them out of heaven to bring them light in the midst of
their misfortunes. The war raged most fiercely in the eighteenth year
of Adrian, at the city of Bithara, which was a very secure
fortress, situated not far from Jerusalem. When the siege had lasted
a long time, and the rebels had been driven to the last extremity by
hunger and thirst, and the instigator of the rebellion had suffered his
just punishment, the whole nation was prohibited from this time on by a
decree, and by the commands of Adrian, from ever going up to the
country about Jerusalem. For the emperor gave orders that they should
not even see from a distance the land of their fathers. Such is the
account of Aristo of Pella. And thus, when the city had been
emptied of the Jewish nation and had suffered the total destruction of
its ancient inhabitants, it was colonized by a different race, and the
Roman city which subsequently arose changed its name and was called
Aelia, in honor of the emperor Aelius Adrian. And as the church
there was now composed of Gentiles, the first one to assume the
government of it after the bishops of the circumcision was Marcus.
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