JEWISH MOMENTS IN THE LAND OF ISRAEL

135 CE. The Aftermath: Rebuilding Jerusalem as Aelia Capitolina

In 135 CE, following the defeat of the Bar Kokhba revolt, Emperor Hadrian transformed the ruins of Jerusalem into a Roman colonial city named Aelia Capitolina. Through the ancient founding ritual of the ‘sulcus primigenius’, pagan temples, a systematic ban on Jewish practice, and the renaming of the province itself, Hadrian enacted a comprehensive program to erase Jewish identity from the land with long lasting religious, political, and cultural dimensions for the Jewish people.

The year 135 CE marked one of the most decisive ruptures in Jewish history. After three years of brutal warfare, the forces of the Roman emperor Hadrian crushed the Bar Kochba Revolt. What followed was not merely a military occupation but a deliberate program of cultural and religious obliteration. Hadrian’s response to the revolt combined Roman colonial urbanism, imperial religious symbolism, and sweeping legal persecution into a systematic attempt to sever the Jewish people from their land, their sacred sites, and the very name of their country.

The centerpiece of Hadrian’s transformation was the refounding of Jerusalem as a Roman colonial city named Aelia Capitolina. The........

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