THE KITOS WAR: JEWISH COURAGE FROM CYRENE TO WASHINGTON — STRENGTH, SURVIVAL, AND SPIRIT AGAINST TYRANNY ACROSS THE AGES IN THE FACE OF EMPIRES
Dedication
To my beloved mother, Blanche Levine Segal (1926–2025) :A woman of valor, grace, and grit.
This work is dedicated to the memory of my beloved mother Blanche Levine Segal (1926–2025), whose life inspires scholarship, reflection, and love of Torah and family. May her memory continue to be a blessing.
Her strength, laughter, and love of learning live in every page of this work.
From her I learned compassion, faith, and the courage to stand upright in a world that too often bends.
This teaching, then, is not about war alone. It is about the enduring Jewish refusal to surrender dignity. It is about emunah, faith , as resistance, about moral courage as the truest weapon. And so, I dedicate this reflection to her memory, and to every soul who believes that goodness itself is an act of rebellion.
May this study honor her life, her humor, and her quiet strength , a spirit that, like our people, has never been conquered.
By Rabbi Dr. Arthur Segal, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina
ABSTACT SUMMARY: Between 115 and 117 CE a series of violent uprisings broke out simultaneously across the eastern Mediterranean and Mesopotamia: in Cyrenaica (North Africa), Cyprus, Alexandria (Egypt), and parts of Mesopotamia, with some later disturbances (or at least Roman military operations) touching Judea. Ancient narrative sources (principally Cassius Dio and Eusebius) present a picture of decentralized, often chaotic Jewish-led revolts in the Diaspora that resulted in catastrophic communal losses and brutal Roman suppression; modern scholarship emphasizes local triggers plus the larger context of Trajan's eastern wars. The revolt is commonly called the Diaspora Revolt or Kitos War and is conventionally dated to Trajan's final years and Hadrian's accession (115–117 CE). It was not a single rebellion, but a chain of uprisings by Jews across the Mediterranean world. They rose against local Roman governors, soldiers, and citizens who had long treated them as lesser beings, stripping them of rights, dignity, and even their ancestral lands.
I. INTRODUCTION: THE FORGOTTEN REVOLT
When we think of Jewish resistance to Rome, most minds turn to Masada, Bar Kokhba, or the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE. Yet between those better-known uprisings lies a nearly forgotten eruption of defiance: the Kitos War, fought from 115 to 117 CE across Cyrenaica (Libya), Egypt, Cyprus, and finally Judea itself.
The Kitos War (115–117 CE) reveals Jewish resistance long before the myths of European passivity. It is one of three meredot ha-galut, the Diaspora revolts
This conflict—ferocious, tragic, and astonishing in its scope—shows that Jewish courage did not vanish after Jerusalem fell. It also reminds us that the stereotype of the "meek diaspora Jew" is a distortion of both history and spirit.
"In a place where there are no men, strive to be a man."
— Pirkei Avot 2:5
"Awake, awake, arm of the LORD; clothe yourself with strength."
— Isaiah 51:9
These two verses frame our calling: to awaken moral courage when others sleep, and to act with conscience when others hide. The Kitos War, and every struggle since, teaches that faith is not retreat — it is resistance.
In the long scroll of Jewish history, some wars are sung, others whispered, and some — like the Kitos War (115–117 CE) — are nearly forgotten.
Yet this uprising, spanning from Cyrene in North Africa to Egypt, Cyprus, and Judea, tells a story every Jew, and every human being who believes in moral courage, should know.
It occurred during the reign of Emperor Trajan, between the First Jewish War (66–73 CE) and the Bar Kokhba Revolt (132–135 CE).
It was not a single rebellion, but a chain of uprisings by Jews across the Mediterranean world. They rose against local Roman governors, soldiers, and citizens who had long treated them as lesser beings, stripping them of rights, dignity, and even their ancestral lands.
The Romans called it a "rebellion of madness."
We might call it the last desperate assertion of Jewish dignity in exile. Few Jews today have heard of it. Even fewer understand its significance. Yet this war reveals something profound about Jewish identity: that the courage to resist tyranny did not begin in the Warsaw Ghetto, nor in the creation of the State of Israel, but in the deep, ancient well of Jewish moral defiance.
For too long, European caricatures, and later, some of our own self-criticism, portrayed Jews as weak, submissive, and unfit for battle. But history tells another story. We fought Rome not once, but three times: in 66–73 CE (the Great Revolt), in 115–117 CE (the Kitos War), and again in 132–135 CE (Bar Kokhba). Each time, we rose not merely with swords, but with the conviction that spiritual dignity is worth more than life itself.
The Roman response was merciless. Entire communities were destroyed. Quietus aka Kitos was dispatched to "pacify" Judea and the eastern provinces. His "pacification" meant slaughter. By the time Emperor Hadrian succeeded Trajan, tens of thousands of Jews were dead, and many survivors enslaved or scattered anew.
The Kitos War is rarely studied because its geography lies outside the familiar lands of Judea. Yet it was part of a single Jewish arc of resistance, spreading from Africa to the Levant. Its story reminds us that Jewish courage was never passive — it was principled, sacrificial, and eternal.
Understanding the Kitos and other diaspora wars dispels the myth of Jewish weakness.
We can demonstrate through historical evidence that Jews never lacked courage. They often lacked opportunity or power. From the revolt of 66–73, through the Kitos War of 115-7 CE, through Bar Kochba's 135 CE revolt, through medieval martyrdoms and the Ghetto uprisings, the thread of Jewish resistance never broke. See our Appendix for details of the war, battles, and destruction.
II. WHO WAS KITOS?
The name "Kitos War" comes not from a Hebrew word but from Lucius Quietus, a Moorish-born Roman general who served under Emperor Trajan.
His soldiers called him Lucius Quietus, but in Greek and Latin sources the name softened into Kitos or Kitus.
He had been rewarded for earlier campaigns in Parthia and was appointed governor of Judea precisely because of his brutal efficiency in suppressing Jewish revolts elsewhere.
To the Romans, he was a savior of order.
To the Jews, he was remembered as a butcher.
The "Kitos War," then, is literally "the war of Quietus"—Rome's grim answer to Jewish cries for dignity
III. ORIGINS OF THE REVOLT
After 70 CE, Jewish life scattered yet endured. Communities flourished in Cyrene (Libya), Alexandria, and Salamis in Cyprus, wealthy through trade and learning. In Cyrene (modern Libya), Jews had lived for centuries as traders, scholars, and artisans.
Our tradition never glorified war — but it never glorified surrender either.
The Torah calls us to be rachmanim bnei rachmanim, compassionate children of compassionate ancestors ,yet also to be rodefei tzedek, pursuers of justice.
Noah, called "righteous in his generation," stood against a corrupt world.
The Jews of the Kitos War stood against a corrupt empire.
Jewish strength is not born of cruelty, but of conscience.
We are strong because we remember, and because we refuse to dehumanize others — even when we ourselves have been dehumanized.
When some today chant slogans of exclusion, echoing the hatreds of the 1930s, we must answer not with fear, but with moral defiance.
The Kitos War reminds us: Jews have never been passive.
We have resisted , with arms, with prayer, with intellect, with song, with stubborn hope.
Whether facing the sword of Trajan or the lies of social media, we must stand as our ancestors did, unbroken, articulate, ethical, and unafraid.
In America today, as demagogues mock empathy and profit from division, we must be like those Jews of old, refusing to bow to false gods, refusing to be silent witnesses to cruelty. And so must we stand today, against hate in all its forms.
As Rabbi Hillel said: "In a place where there are no men, strive to be a man." (Pirkei Avot 2:6)
Today we might say: In a time where there is no humanity, strive to be humane.
Jews under Rome's iron heel with forced enslavement, Roman taxation, desecration, and imperialism provoking rebellion. Trajan, eager to expand eastward into Parthia, conscripted heavy taxes and troops from the provinces. Roman officials desecrated synagogues, mocked Sabbath observance, and imposed humiliations meant to remind Jews of their "defeat." According to Cassius Dio (Roman History 68:32), what began as resentment became revolt: "The Jews showed themselves in arms and destroyed both Greeks and Romans."
When Emperor Trajan launched his Parthian campaign (114 CE), many Jews—resentful of Rome's earlier devastations and heavy taxes—saw opportunity. Thus began Jewish flames of freedom from Africa to Judea.
The Spark: Cyrene, Libya, and the Diaspora's Anguish
In Cyrene (modern Libya), Jews had lived for centuries as traders, scholars, and artisans.
But Roman misrule, heavy taxation, and cultural humiliation bred resentment.
The Roman historian Cassius Dio (Book 68) reports that a Jewish leader named Lukuas or Andreas led the Cyrenian Jews in revolt, attacking Roman strongholds and pagan temples.
The violence was fierce, and Dio's account — colored by Roman bias — accuses Jews of massacres.
We know the Romans retaliated with savage vengeance, wiping out entire Jewish quarters and enslaving survivors.
But beneath the Roman exaggeration, one truth stands clear: the Jews of the diaspora were no longer silent victims.
This was not a mob riot. It was a rebellion of identity, the cry of a people who refused to be erased.
Ancient historians Dio Cassius and Eusebius record that in 115 CE, Jewish uprisings erupted almost simultaneously in Cyrenaica and Egypt.
A Jewish leader named Andreas proclaimed himself king and sent forces against Roman garrisons.
In Cyrene, rebels destroyed pagan temples and Roman estates; the violence spiraled as both sides fought.
The Romans slaughtered civilians.
From there the revolt spread west to Alexandria and east across the sea to Cyprus, where Jews under a leader named Artemion seized control of Salamis.
The Roman response was swift and merciless.
General Marcius Turbo crushed the Egyptian uprising; Quietus did the same in Judea.
By 117 CE, the empire's vengeance was complete.
The fire of Jewish revolt spreads from Egypt, Cyprus, and Judea.
From Cyrene, the uprising spread westward and eastward — to Alexandria, Egypt, Cyprus, and even Judea itself. In Alexandria, long a center of Jewish scholarship and tension, the revolt merged with Greek–Roman street violence.
The great library and synagogues were burned; the Romans retaliated by sending in the brutal general Marcus Turbo, who crushed the revolt with unspeakable slaughter.
In Cyprus, Jewish rebels, led by Artemion, briefly seized control of the island.
The Romans struck back so ruthlessly that the historian Dio records a law was passed banning Jews from ever again setting foot on Cyprus — "even if shipwrecked."
Imagine: even drowning Jews were to be denied landfall.
In Judea, though weary from the destruction of the Second Temple just forty years before, small groups rose again.
The Romans called them "Zealots," but in their hearts they were heirs of the Maccabees — unwilling to bow to Caesar's gods.
In 115 CE and 116 CE Jewish insurgents rebel in Cyrene (Libya) Salamis, led by Jewish Artemion with extreme slaughter of Romans. Roman temples and civic buildings are destroyed. In late 115 into 116 CE violent Jewish riots happen in Alexandria and through the Nile Delta. More Romans Temples are destroyed in Cyrene. The Jewish quarter in Alexandria is destroyed by Jews. From 116 to 117 Rome sent forces from their front line in the war against Parthians under Trajan, to Cyrene, Alexandria, Cyprus, under generals Quintus Turbo and Kitos. Jews controlled part of Cypress and Rome retakes the island. In 117 CE Trajan dies and Hadrian becomes emperor. The Jewish rebellion is crushed and Jews are slaughtered or taken as slaves.
The Jerusalem Talmud, Sukkah 5:1, contains three stories about the Jewish revolt, including references to the destruction of the Great Synagogue of Alexandria and the massacre of Jews by Trajan. These narratives, which focus on Roman actions rather than the Greeks or Egyptians, were likely influenced by the heightened anti-Roman sentiment following the Bar Kokhba revolt, which occurred about fifteen years later and had disastrous consequences for the Jews of Judaea. While the stories contain historical kernels, they also incorporate legendary elements that reduce their reliability as strict historical sources. Nonetheless, these sources reflect rabbinic debates of the time regarding Jewish life in the diaspora following the Bar Kokhba revolt, highlight the hostilities and tensions between Jews and Romans, and reveal the hope for the arrival of the Messiah among the Jews of Judaea.
Before I tell more, a little appetizer of why we are studying this Kitos war. There are modern parallels and moral Lessons
Today, some would still portray Jews as meek scholars, passive before power, who rediscovered bravery only in 1943 Warsaw or 1948 Tel Aviv. This is a myth born of ignorance. Our history tells a different story ,one of constant, courageous moral struggle.
To remember the Kitos War is to remember that Jewish identity has always fused compassion with courage, study with strength, and chesed with gevurah. Jewish courage is not born in the 20th century in Warsaw or Palestine. It is inherited from centuries of defiance and hope.
It was remembered by the partisans in the forests of Eastern Europe, and the pioneers of the Yishuv who built the State of Israel from swamp and desert.
In a world where authoritarianism again rises ,where lies are called truth and cruelty masquerades as "order", Jews and Americans alike must reclaim the moral backbone of our ancestors.
To resist tyranny is not only political. It is Torah.
To protect the powerless is not only ethical. It is covenantal.
And to speak truth to falsehood, even when it costs us comfort, is the living echo of every generation that refused to bow before empire.
IV. THE DECREE AGAINST CYPRUS AND SOME AFTERMATH
The devastation of Cyprus left such a mark that Roman authorities issued an extraordinary decree:
"No Jew may set foot upon the island of Cyprus; if shipwrecked there, he must die."
This edict, recorded by Dio Cassius (Roman History 68:32), remained in force for centuries and symbolized Rome's fear of Jewish defiance even in exile.
Imagine a law so cruel that survival itself—washed ashore by accident—was punishable by death.
It illustrates both the ferocity of the revolt and the terror it inspired in Rome's governors
Rome's response was unrelenting fury, causing the Jewish people deep, long lasting, scars.
By 117 CE, the Romans had crushed every Jewish outpost of rebellion.
Cyrene, Alexandria, and Cyprus were depopulated; Judea's fields were salted with Roman arrogance.
The Kitos War left hundreds of thousands dead, though Roman numbers are notoriously inflated.
The great historian Eusebius would later call it "a war of shadows" — terrible yet half-forgotten.
But the true wound was spiritual: the Diaspora itself was broken.
Wherever Jews lived, suspicion followed them.
The ban on Jews in Cyprus endured for centuries, a bitter reminder of Rome's attempt to erase our presence from the map of its empire.
V. JUDEA AND THE FINAL SUPPRESSION
In Judea, remnants of the rebellion joined with disaffected Zealots and messianic movements still smoldering from the Great Revolt.
After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, Jewish communities from Cyrene to Alexandria, Cyprus, and Mesopotamia lived under Rome's imperial rule.
Initially tolerated, they soon suffered heavy taxation, confiscation of property, and curbs on religious practice.
When Emperor Trajan launched his Parthian campaign, Rome drew troops away from its African and Near Eastern provinces, leaving local populations volatile.
In this vacuum, long-suppressed resentments ignited.
Quietus and his legions crushed them ruthlessly.
By 118 CE, Trajan was dead and Hadrian began rebuilding the empire—literally and ideologically—on ruins once sacred to Israel.
But even this temporary calm set the stage for the next uprising: Bar Kokhba (132 – 135 CE).
When scholars have theological reflection Jewish resistance and strength is often misunderstood.
In later centuries, European anti-Semites would slander Jews as cowardly scholars ,"a people of words, not swords."
But the Kitos War, the Maccabean Revolt, the Warsaw Ghetto, and the State of Israel all testify otherwise.
Our tradition never glorified war ; but it never glorified surrender either.
The Torah calls us to be rachmanim bnei rachmanim — compassionate children of compassionate ancestors — yet also to be rodefei tzedek, pursuers of justice.
Noah, called "righteous in his generation," stood against a corrupt world.
The Jews of the Kitos War stood against a corrupt empire.
And so must we stand today, against hate in all its forms.
Jewish strength is not born of cruelty, but of conscience.
We are strong because we remember, and because we refuse to dehumanize others — even when we ourselves have been dehumanized.
As stated in Cyrene (modern Libya), a Jewish leader named Lukuas — also called Andreas — led a revolt, destroying Roman property and freeing enslaved Jews.
The rebellion spread to Egypt, where Jews of Alexandria and the Delta joined in, recalling earlier massacres under Roman governors.
Soon Cyprus, under Artemion, and Mesopotamia, where Jewish troops allied with Parthian forces, were also aflame.
Rome struck back with terrifying efficiency.
The general Lucius Quietus — known as Kitos in Greek — was dispatched to annihilate the rebels.
Entire Jewish populations of Cyrene, Alexandria, and Cyprus were killed or enslaved.
Hadrian, succeeding Trajan, restored order but banned Jews permanently from Cyprus and other regions.
The Roman historian Cassius Dio (Roman History 68:32) records that the violence left provinces "bereft of life itself."
Yet beneath the ashes lies testimony to Jewish defiance: communities far from Jerusalem still rose up for Torah, life, and freedom.
VI. RABBINIC ECHOES
The Talmud and Midrash do not mention the "Kitos War" by name, yet traces of its trauma linger.
Scholars see hints in passages lamenting massacres at Alexandria and Cyprus (Talmud Bavli Gittin 57b), where rabbinic voices mourn "the slain of Betar" and "the multitudes of Alexandria."
In Midrash Eicha Rabbah, Israel's scattered blood "cries from the islands of the sea"—perhaps a poetic memory of Cyprus and the Mediterranean diaspora.
The rabbis transformed catastrophe into theology: even when Rome seemed all-powerful, Jewish survival proved that Torah outlasts empire.
While later Roman sources describe the Jews as bloodthirsty rebels, the context reveals otherwise.
This was not an attempt at imperial overthrow, but an eruption of despair against persecution.
The Jewish uprisings of the Kitos War were spontaneous, uncoordinated, and deeply human. They were expressions of a people refusing annihilation.
Archaeological and literary traces show how interconnected these communities were.
Synagogues of Cyrene and Alexandria shared liturgical customs with Judea; messianic expectations persisted even in exile.
The destruction of the Temple had not erased hope; it had dispersed it.
Thus the Kitos War should be seen as a Diasporic continuation of the same struggle that animated the Zealots of Jerusalem: the defense of Jewish identity under foreign domination.
Rome could burn the Temple, but it could not extinguish Jewish faith.
VII. COURAGE AND THE FALSE IMAGE OF WEAKNESS
Some modern anti-Semitic myths, and even internalized ones, portray Jews as passive scholars who only learned to fight in the Warsaw Ghetto or in modern Israel.
The Kitos War exposes that lie.
Long before medieval Europe, Jews fought imperial armies across continents.
Their resistance may have been crushed militarily, but it was morally indestructible.
To study these revolts is not to glorify violence—it is to remember that self-defense and spiritual resistance trumps violent oppressors. The Kitos War studies moral resonance — linking ancient courage and moral struggle with the resilience of Jews in later centuries, and the ethical demand upon all of us, especially Jews and Americans, to confront cruelty and creeping fascism today. Spiritual resistance and self-defense are one when dignity is at stake.
The same spirit that drove Torah study in Babylonia drove rebellion in Cyrene: faith that injustice is never eternal.
VIII. MODERN REFLECTION: STANDING AGAINST FASCISM, AGAIN
When some today chant slogans of exclusion, echoing the hatreds of the 1930s, we must answer not with fear, but with moral defiance.
The Kitos War reminds us: Jews have never been passive.
We have resisted — with arms, with prayer, with intellect, with song, with stubborn hope.
Whether facing the sword of Trajan or the lies of social media, we must stand as our ancestors did —unbroken, articulate, ethical, and unafraid.
In America today, as demagogues mock empathy and profit from division, we must be like those Jews of old — refusing to bow to false gods, refusing to be silent witnesses to cruelty.
As Rabbi Hillel said:
"In a place where there are no men, strive to be a man." (Pirkei Avot 2:6)
Today we might say: In a time where there is no humanity, strive to be humane.
The Kitos War reminds us that Jewish strength is measured not by dominion, but by dignity. Our ancestors' courage flowed from faith, not fury. They affirmed that holiness demands resistance to cruelty.
From the burning synagogues of Cyrene to the partisans of modern Europe and the defenders of Israel, a single thread endures:
Am Yisrael Chai — the people of Israel live.
To live is to stand.
To stand is to sanctify life.
May the telling of their story and their memory strengthen us to confront the empires of our own day with moral clarity and fearless compassion.
Centuries later, anti-Semites in Europe cast Jews as weak, timid, unfit for struggle.
Even sympathetic historians spoke as if Jewish valor had been reborn only in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (1943) or in the birth of Israel (1948).
The Kitos War refutes that myth.
The myth of Jewish weakness is still spread. Self-defense against invasion and civilian hostage taking has Jews portrayed as weak morally.
Our history, this treatise, demonstrates through historical evidence that Jews never lacked courage — they often lacked opportunity or power. From the revolt of 66–73, through the Kitos War, through medieval martyrdoms and the Ghetto uprisings, the thread of resistance never broke.
Historians like Martin Goodman, Shaye Cohen, and Salo Baron dismantle the anti-Semitic trope of Jewish passivity.
Long before modern nationalism, Jews had already taken up arms for dignity. They fought not for conquest but for conscience. Their model inspires all who resist tyranny today — Jews and non-Jews alike.
In America, where authoritarian temptations resurface, we are called to the same synthesis: compassion joined with courage, scholarship wedded to moral action. In a world where authoritarianism again rises — where lies are called truth and cruelty masquerades as "order" ,Jews and Americans must reclaim the moral backbone of our ancestors.
The sages teach that faith and resistance are one when tyranny demands submission.
To resist injustice is Torah.
To resist tyranny is not only political. It is Torah.
To protect the powerless is not only ethical. It is covenantal.
To speak truth to falsehood, even when it costs us comfort, is the living echo of every generation that refused to bow before empire.
To speak truth against lies is mitzvah.
These were the lessons written not only in our scrolls, but in our blood and resolve.
VIII. THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION: STRENGTH OF THE SOUL
What lesson does this war hold for us today, in an age when tyranny again tempts nations?
That Jewish courage is not born of empire but of conscience.
When our ancestors rose against Rome, they acted not out of hatred but out of the refusal to be erased.
Their struggle sanctifies the principle that faith demands moral action—that silence in the face of cruelty is its own form of idolatry.
Each generation must decide whether it will bow to the Trajans and Quietuses of its time, or whether it will stand with the unknown rebels of Cyrene and Salamis who said, "We will live as Jews, or not at all."
Our Rabbinic theological reflections show us courage, covenant, and conscience.
Jewish theology views revolt from Exodus to Maccabees to Bar Kokhba, with ambivalence: peace versus resistance, and the enduring tension between obedience to God and obedience to empire.
The Rabbinic sages revisit Noah's righteousness: the difference between silent obedience and moral protest.
The rabbis stressed the mitzvah of standing up: the Jewish obligation not to be passive in the face of evil.
Our contemporary rabbis draw parallels to modern moral courage; from Warsaw to Selma to today's America.
IX. THE LEGACY OF THE KITOS WAR
From Cyrene to Capitol Hill: The Eternal Call to Resist Cruelty
The covenant is not only ritual but moral defiance of tyranny.
From the prophets to rabbinic resonance: Isaiah's "Woe to those who decree unjust decrees," Amos' "Let justice roll down like waters," and Pirkei Avot's "Where there is no man, strive to be a man."
There is an explicit line between the moral courage of ancient Jews under Rome and the need for Americans — Jews and non-Jews alike — to defend democracy and compassion against cruelty, deceit, and authoritarianism today.
The revolt spread like a holy fire. In Cyrene, Jews struck against Roman garrisons and collaborators. In Egypt, Alexandria's Jewish quarter rose in solidarity. Cyprus, home to a large Jewish diaspora, joined the cause, driving out Roman officials.
Rome's response was brutal. It was "a war of unspeakable savagery."
And yet, I do not read this as tragedy alone. These Jews of the Diaspora — far from Zion, generations removed from the Temple — still saw themselves as am kadosh, a holy people bound by covenant. They fought not for empire but for identity. They chose death over humiliation, faith over fear.
When I teach this, I remind my talmudim that courage is not the absence of suffering. It is the decision that values endure even when bodies fail.
X. CONCLUSION – THE WATERS STILL RISE
The 'water of Noah' have receded but never disappeared. Every generation must find the courage to build arks, to protect human dignity even when civilization seems to drown itself.
The Kitos War ended in ashes, but its legacy burns still — not in violence, but in moral endurance.
Our people's history teaches that even when scattered, humiliated, and forbidden from touching the shores of Cyprus, we never ceased to be a nation of spirit.
For Jews, and for all who believe in justice , this is our inheritance:
To rise, rebuild, and renew.
To study, but also to act.
To remember, but never to despair.
The rabbis of Yavneh, who re-established Jewish spiritual life after 70 CE, emphasized patience and learning.
Within their writings flicker embers of defiance are found.
The Talmud (Sanhedrin 72a) teaches:
Ha-ba lehorgekha, hashkem lehorgo — "If one rises to kill you, rise earlier and kill him."
Self-defense is not vengeance; it is the sanctification of life.
The Kitos fighters, though outside Judea, embodied that principle.
Their rebellion was not only military; it was covenantal , a refusal to live in desecration.
As Midrash Tanchuma (Noach 19) reads:
"When the righteous see violence and remain silent, their silence is counted against them."
Through this lens, the Kitos War becomes a sacred act of protest — a defense of the divine image in humankind.
In our tradition, to die al Kiddush HaShem — sanctifying God's Name — is to affirm that moral conscience is sacred even under tyranny. The Sifre Devarim teaches, "In every generation, one must see oneself as if standing before Sinai." That means no emperor, no ideology, no strongman, can redefine righteousness.
History is not just memory; it is a mirror. The same impulses that led Rome to crush conscience exist in every age ,including our own. The dehumanizing rhetoric of empire, the idolization of power, the silencing of truth, and the targeting of the vulnerable are symptoms of moral rot.
As Americans, as Jews, as inheritors of prophetic conscience, we are called to stand against cruelty, whether it marches under the banner of Caesar or nationalism.
I write these words not as politics but as Torah: our duty is to resist the normalization of evil. The prophets did not flatter kings; they held them accountable.
The lesson is clear: Faith is not passivity. Faith is rebellion against injustice disguised as order. When Rome demands silence, prayer becomes an act of revolution.
7. From Cyrene to Washington — The Moral Mirror
History is not just memory; it is a mirror. The same impulses that led Rome to crush conscience exist in every age — including our own. The dehumanizing rhetoric of empire, the idolization of power, the silencing of truth, the targeting of the vulnerable — all are symptoms of moral rot.
As Americans, as Jews, as inheritors of prophetic conscience, we are called to stand against cruelty, whether it marches under the banner of Caesar or nationalism.
I write these words not as politics but as Torah: our duty is to resist the normalization of evil. The prophets did not flatter kings; they held them accountable.
From Cyrene to Washington, the lesson is the same — the measure of a people is not their might, but their moral courage. Lo bashamayim hi , the Torah is not in heaven. It is here, in our courts, our classrooms, our synagogues, and our civic lives.
XI. CLOSING REFLECTION
The Kitos War reminds us: Jewish strength is not measured by conquest, but by conscience. Our victories are not in bloodshed, but in the refusal to surrender our souls.
From the burning synagogues of Cyrene to the brave hearts of today's peacemakers, the story continues — a chain unbroken. We are commanded to remember, to stand, and to sanctify life.
There are parallels between ancient and 20th century and recent fascism and modern authoritarianism.
We must have courage against cruelty, truth against propaganda.
The Kitos War ended in ashes, but its legacy burns still ,not in violence, but in moral endurance.
Our people's history teaches that even when scattered, humiliated, and forbidden from touching the shores of Cyprus, we never ceased to be a nation of spirit.
The rabbis transformed catastrophe into theology: even when Rome seemed all-powerful, Jewish survival proved that Torah outlasts empire.
For Jews, and for all who believe in justice, this is our inheritance:
To rise, rebuild, and renew.
To study, but also to act.
To remember, but never to despair.
The moral call to Jews and Americans alike is: Never be silent.
There is much strength in memory. Isaiah tells us to "Awake, awake, arm of the LORD. Clothe yourself with strength." "{Is: 51:9].
In the second century of the Common Era, Jewish communities in the Diaspora rose up not from hatred, but from despair turned to defiance, faith turned to freedom's flame.
Yet the Kitos War stands not as a tale of futility, but of Jewish resilience. It is an early echo of the spirit that would one day animate the Warsaw Ghetto, the partisans of Europe, and the defense of Israel's rebirth.
The Kitos War exposes an often-forgotten truth: Jews were never strangers to courage. Long before Zionist pioneers took up arms, Jewish men and women fought for dignity and survival in Rome's coliseums, in Alexandria's streets, and on the windswept hills of Cyrene.
Philo of Alexandria had written of Jews as loyal citizens of empire, committed to peace and learning. But when Rome turned its power to oppression, Jewish patience turned to righteous resistance.
The rabbis of the post-Temple age, while cautious about rebellion, never denied the holiness of self-defense. As it says in the Talmud (Sanhedrin 72a):
"If one rises to kill you, rise earlier and kill him."
This moral clarity, that life is sacred and therefore must be defended ,threads through Jewish thought from the Tanakh to the modern era.
In the Kitos War, we witness the Diaspora's paradox: Jews living far from Jerusalem, yet still bound by the covenant of justice. Their revolt was not only political; it was spiritual. They could not bear to see the Torah silenced, the Sabbath mocked, or their people treated as less than human.
May this remembrance honor those who fought and fell, and may it awaken in us the same fierce love of justice that once burned in their hearts.
XII. EPILOGUE: FOR MOM
Mom, this one's for you.
You taught me that strength doesn't always shout — sometimes it bakes, it hugs, it listens, it forgives.
May your memory be a blessing.
And may our people, like you, never lose heart — no matter how strong the empire we stand against.
Your memory is the light that never fails. Your instructions allow us to meditate on hope, history, and the eternal covenant.
My mother, Blanche Levine Segal, lived that truth with quiet grace. She taught me that moral courage begins not on the battlefield, but at the dinner table, in how we speak, in how we listen, in how we honor the divine image in others.
When I think of the Jews of Cyrene and Cyprus, standing before the legions of Rome, I think also of us, Jews and Americans, standing before the legions of fear and cruelty in our own day. History does not repeat, but it rhymes. The spirit that made them brave still calls to us: Choose decency over dominance, conscience over comfort.
Moral courage begins quietly. It begins when we refuse to laugh at cruelty, when we correct a lie told in our presence, when we speak up for the vulnerable even when silence is safer. Rome demanded submission not only of the body but of the soul — and that is what tyranny always seeks. The antidote is a conscience that cannot be bought, threatened, or numbed.
Too often, our history has been summarized by suffering — as if the Jewish people existed only as victims. Yet, through every century, we find courage, resistance, and moral resolve. The Kitos War, often overlooked, stands as one of these forgotten epics of Jewish bravery.
Our ancestors faced swords; we face cynicism. They died for their faith; we must live by ours. And faith, as I understand it, is not blind belief in miracles, but steadfast trust that truth and goodness still matter.
My mother, Blanche Levine Segal, taught me that courage and kindness are not opposites — they are partners. She faced her own trials with dignity and humor, reminding me that strength without compassion becomes cruelty, and compassion without strength becomes surrender.
So, I say to my talmudim, my colleagues, and to myself: let us be the generation that remembers. Let us refuse the luxury of apathy. Let us build a world where moral courage is not the exception, but the expectation.
In America, where authoritarian temptations resurface, we are called to the same synthesis: compassion joined with courage, scholarship wedded to moral action. May the study of this forgotten chapter awaken pride in our people's resilience and deepen our resolve to live by justice, mercy, and courage.
May the memory of those who stood against Rome, and all who have stood against injustice since, inspire us to stand upright — proud Jews, proud Americans, proud human beings — who believe, as our prophets did, that righteousness will yet embrace peace. Their bravery, though obscured by Rome's historians, still speaks to us. It is a call to conscience in our own age of political cruelty and spiritual confusion.
Its story reminds us that Jewish courage was never passive. It was principled, sacrificial, and eternal.
May the study of this forgotten chapter awaken pride in our people's resilience and deepen our resolve to live by justice, mercy, and courage. May the same moral DNA that runs from the fighters in Cyrene, Cyprus, and Alexandria through the Maccabees, the Zealots, the Warsaw Ghetto, and modern Israel — and now, foster the moral courage needed in contemporary America.
Ken yehi ratzon — so may it be God's will.
1. PRIMARY SOURCES AND EVIDENCE (LIMITS & STRENGTHS)
A. Jews vs. Rome: Two Centuries of Rebellion Against the World's Mightiest Empire, By: Barry Strauss
B. Cassius Dio (Roman History) provides the most detailed contemporary narrative surviving for Cyrenaica and Cyprus (preserved in the Xiphilinus epitome). Dio reports mass slaughter and destruction, with extremely high casualty figures (which modern historians treat with caution).
JUDAISM-AND-ROME.ORG
C. Eusebius (Ecclesiastical History) and later Christian writers give a shorter account emphasizing violence in Alexandria and surrounding regions.
Wikipedia
D. Rabbinic literature (tangential references in the Talmud) and papyri/epigraphic evidence in Egypt and North Africa supply local color and administrative response. Modern archaeological and papyrological work supplements the literary sources but cannot fully quantify casualties.
Cambridge University Press & Assessment
E. Important caution: the ancient casualty numbers (e.g., Cassius Dio's claims of hundreds of thousands killed in Cyrene and Cyprus) are likely inflated and rhetorical; historians use them only as indicators of intense violence and civic collapse in those regions.
Wikipedia
2. CONTEXT AND CAUSES — MACRO AND LOCAL
Macro context
The uprisings occurred against a backdrop of Roman imperial campaigning under Trajan (the Parthian war, new eastern conquests) and the stresses of imperial mobilization. Trajan's eastern campaigns removed troops and created political flux — both opportunities and grievances for local communities.
Wikipedia
3. LOCAL TRIGGERS
A] Intercommunal tensions between Greeks (or Hellenized populations) and Jewish communities — especially in port cities where Jews were economically prominent — had a long history (Alexandria is the classic example). Conflicts of honor, competition for civic privileges, and occasional violent incidents preceded the 115 outbreaks. In Egypt, earlier riots and economic rivalries helped fuel escalation.
Cambridge University Press & Assessment
B] The immediate stimulus in some places seems to have been coordinated opportunism: with Roman attention on the Parthian front, localized Jewish groups rose up (some accounts suggest messianic fervor or revenge for earlier persecutions). Modern scholars argue for a mixture of reactive and opportunistic motives rather than a single, empire-wide conspiracy.
Cambridge University Press & Assessment
4. REGIONAL NARRATIVE
A]. Cyrenaica (North Africa; modern eastern Libya)
According to Cassius Dio the revolt began in Cyrene (or Cyrenaica, Libya), where Jewish rebels killed many Greeks and Romans and destroyed temples and civic centers. Roman counter-measures eventually razed strongholds; the Jewish communities in the region were devastated. Archaeology and papyri indicate urban disruption and decline after 115.
JUDAISM-AND-ROME.ORG
B]. Cyprus
Cassius Dio reports especially severe fighting in Cyprus with enormous fatalities and destruction of cities — the island's Greek civic infrastructure suffered heavily. Many scholars treat Dio's numbers as exaggerated, but Cyprus clearly experienced catastrophic urban violence and depopulation in this period.
JUDAISM-AND-ROME.ORG
C]. Alexandria and other Egyptian centers
In Alexandria the conflict returned the city to a pattern of Greek–Jewish violence: earlier Ptolemaic and Roman tensions flared again. The revolt apparently led to the massacre of many non-Jews, subsequent Roman reprisals, and a long period of instability for the city's Jewish quarter. Papyrus evidence shows interruptions to daily life and administrative orders enacted to restore order.
D] .Mesopotamia
Outbreaks (or unrest) occurred in Roman-held Mesopotamian towns and settlements newly under Trajan's control; Romans suppressed disturbances often with decisive force. These eastern disturbances were one reason Trajan reorganized and sent commanders to re-assert control.
Wikipedia
E]. Judea
The question of whether a full revolt broke out in Judea remains debated. Some inscriptions and later Syrian chronicles suggest unrest; other historians (e.g., Fergus Millar, Meyers & Chancey) argue Judea itself was largely buffered by legions and did not erupt into a major revolt like 66–73 or 132–136 CE. Lucius Quietus's later activity in Judea (appointed by Trajan) indicates Roman concern about stability there.
Wikipedia
Barry Strauss ,Jews vs. Rome: Two Centuries of Rebellion Against the World's Mightiest Empire
5]. ROMAN RESPONSE AND MILITARY OPERATIONS
Rome dispatched legions and commanders (Trajan, then Hadrian's deputies; Lucius Quietus aka Kitos is the most famous Roman general associated with suppression). The Romans engaged in brutal suppression, punitive killings, and "ethnic cleansing" in several cities per later accounts. The immediate Roman priority was to secure supply lines and restore order during the Parthian campaigns and Trajan's return.
JUDAISM-AND-ROME.ORG
6. AFTERMATH: DEMOGRAPHIC, POLITICAL, AND LONG-TERM CONSEQUENCES
Demographic collapse for several Diaspora communities: historians infer that Jewish urban life in parts of North Africa and Cyprus was severely reduced. Some cities never recovered their pre-115 population or civic structure.
Wikipedia
Political consequence: Trajan's eastern gains were later retrenched by Hadrian; the instability contributed to a recalibration of Roman provincial policy in the East.
Communal consequence: Jewish diaspora communities were weakened and traumatized, foreshadowing the larger conflagration of the Bar Kokhba revolt two decades later in Judea.
Wikipedia
7. HISTORIOGRAPHICAL DEBATES (BRIEF)
Scale and motive: Scholars debate how coordinated the revolt was and whether the high casualties are reliable. Many now see the uprising as regionally varied ,serious in some cities, less so or absent in others ,driven by a mix of local grievances, opportunity, and the larger strategic vacuum caused by Rome's eastern war. The uprisings occurred against a backdrop of Roman imperial campaigning under Trajan (the Parthian war, new eastern conquests) and the stresses of imperial mobilization. Trajan's eastern campaigns removed troops and created political flux ,both opportunities and grievances for local communities.
The immediate stimulus in some places seems to have been coordinated opportunism: with Roman attention on the Parthian front, localized Jewish groups rose up (some accounts suggest messianic fervor or revenge for earlier persecutions). Modern scholars argue for a mixture of reactive and opportunistic motives rather than a single, empire-wide conspiracy.
Cambridge University Press & Assessment
Judea's role: Some argue Judea was not a main theater; others point to inscriptions and later chronicles suggesting movement of rebels into the region; interpretation depends on fragmentary evidence. The question of whether a full revolt broke out in Judea remains debated. Some inscriptions and later Syrian chronicles suggest unrest; other historians (e.g., Fergus Millar, Meyers & Chancey) argue Judea itself was largely buffered by legions and did not erupt into a major revolt like 66–73 or 132–136 CE. Lucius Quietus's [aka Kitos] later activity in Judea (appointed by Trajan) indicates Roman concern about stability there.
Wikipedia
8. THE HISTORICAL RECORD
Our libraries are filled with texts of political background: Rome under Trajan, and Jewish diaspora prosperity and tension. We have facts of simultaneous uprisings across the eastern empire. Key primary sources are Cassius Dio, Eusebius, and papyri along with their biases.
We have modern reassessments: from exaggerated casualty numbers to local independence movements.
OTHER BIBLIOGRPHY
Barry Strauss ,Jews vs. Rome: Two Centuries of Rebellion Against the World's Mightiest Empire,
Scholars debate how coordinated the revolt was and whether the high casualties are reliable. Many now see the uprising as regionally varied — serious in some cities, less so or absent in others — driven by a mix of local grievances, opportunity, and the larger strategic vacuum caused by Rome's eastern war.
Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 4.2.5.
Pucci Ben Zeev, "The Diaspora Revolt under Trajan," ZPE (Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik).
Martin Goodman, Rome and Jerusalem (Penguin, 2007).
Shaye J.D. Cohen, From the Maccabees to the Mishnah.
Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Prophets (for the moral theology of resistance).
Josephus, Against Apion, 2:282 — on Jewish resilience under persecution.
Cassius Dio, Roman History 68:32–33 – A Roman senator's account describing the devastation of Cyrene, Egypt, and Cyprus during Trajan's reign. (Xiphilinus epitome).
Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 72a – Principle of self-defense: "If one comes to kill you, rise earlier and kill him."
Midrash Tanchuma, Noach 19 – Condemns silence in the face of injustice; righteousness demands protest.
Philo of Alexandria, Flaccus 6–8 – Describes earlier pogroms against Alexandrian Jews and their patient endurance. Alexandria and other Egyptian centers
In Alexandria the conflict returned the city to a pattern of Greek–Jewish violence: earlier Ptolemaic and Roman tensions flared again. The revolt apparently led to the massacre of many non-Jews, subsequent Roman reprisals, and a long period of instability for the city's Jewish quarter. Papyrus evidence shows interruptions to daily life and administrative orders enacted to restore order.
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The Author:
Rabbi Dr. Arthur Segal is a teacher, writer, and spiritual guide whose work brings ancient Jewish wisdom to modern moral life. Receiving Semicha Ordination after ten years of full time study with both traditional and progressive Rabbis, he has taught Torah, Talmud, Mussar and ethics for more than four decades across synagogues, universities, and interfaith settings.
He is the author of 5 bestselling books, and countless published Talmudic essays.
His teachings weave together rabbinic sources, historical scholarship, and lived experience—showing that Judaism is not merely a faith of survival, but a living call to justice, compassion, and joy.
This reflection on the Kitos War was written in loving memory of his mother, Blanche Levine Segal (1926–2025), whose moral courage and boundless kindness remain his greatest teachers.
Hilton Head Island, South Carolina — 2025
