1

The wiki entry about Bar Kokhba revolt has no information or indication about how many Roman civilians died in that conflict.

580,000 Jews killed, 50 fortified towns and 985 villages razed; "many more" Jews dying of famine and disease. Massive Roman military casualties.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar_Kokhba_revolt

My questions are,

How many civilians of Roman empire (except jews) died in the Bar Kokhba revolt?

If no estimates are available, what was the scale of civilian casualties? Was it minimal or massive?

3
  • 1
    What "Roman civilians" are you talking about? Roman citizens living in Palestine? But there were very few of them anyway. Most Roman citizens in Palestine were soldiers or administrators.
    – Alex
    Commented Nov 11, 2016 at 22:16
  • @Alex When I said, Roman civilians, I meant civilians of Roman empire. Commented Nov 12, 2016 at 15:18
  • 1
    Bar Kokhba war was a revolt rather than a regular war. How do you distinguish "civilians" from "soldiers" (on the Jewish side)?
    – Alex
    Commented Nov 12, 2016 at 15:45

1 Answer 1

5

Very few. The revolt was only (temporarily) successful in the Judean Highlands. The only cities were Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Jericho and they were rather small and didn't have much of a Roman civilian population. (Why would they want to live there? Maybe a few merchants had offices there) Most of the action took place in sparsely mountainous areas and was against the Roman military. Simply put, there were very few Roman civilians (non military/government) to be potentially killed to begin with.

2
  • 1
    Any sources? The same wiki entry states 'Cassius Dio also claimed that "Many Romans, moreover, perished in this war.'
    – justCal
    Commented Nov 11, 2016 at 16:23
  • 4
    Sources would indeed improve this. I will say from what I've read almost all Romans in the area would have been either soldiers or high-level functionaries. The rest of the upper classes who weren't Jewish would have been Greek (although many likely also Roman citizens). This is part of why most of the New Testament was originally written in Greek.
    – T.E.D.
    Commented Nov 11, 2016 at 18:46

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.