May His Bones be Crushed

-125 AD- Hadrian returns to Rome after touring the empire.
   -Reception of Hadrian by the citizens of Rome was mixed.  The provincials had loved him, however.
   -While he kept the citizens of Rome happy with games and urban renewal projects, many felt that he was not a "true" Roman.
      -Hadrian loved hunting, astrology, poetry, and everything Greek.  He was also from Hispania and extremely gay.  Additionally, he rocked a full beard, which was not fashionable in Rome at this time.
         -He also conducted business from his villa in Tibur (modern-day Tivoli, Lazio) rather than the Palatine Hill.
-127 AD- Hadrian decided to tour the Italian peninsula, moderating and ordering renovations and shit.
   -The province of Italia had been divided into 17 districts which kind of administrated themselves, but Hadrian decided to instead divide the peninsula into four zones, each run by an imperial procurator. 
      -This really pissed off Italians- they felt like Hadrian was just turning Italia into just another province of the empire, diminishing its status of supremacy.
   -During this time he also got sick for months.
-128 AD- traveled to North Africa to inspect the troops, order more fortifications built, etc.
   -On his way back to Rome he stopped by Greece, and once again participated in the Eleusinian Mysteries.
      -While in Greece, he pushed for the creation of a Pan-Hellenic league that would elevate Greece from a backwater into a cultural powerhouse again.  Especially, he wanted to unite Sparta and Athens, who famously never got along well together.
         -Greece had always been divided politically due to its tendency to develop city-states instead of kingdoms or empires. 
         -Of course, Greece still wouldn't have any real power, they would just be a major cultural hub.
         -Unfortunately, these plans fell through after Hadrian left.
-129 AD- sailed into Anatolia, where he met with Eastern client-kings of Rome who served as buffers between the Roman Empire and the "uncivilized lands" outside of its domain and influence.
   -This pissed off the Senate- Rome was powerful enough so that it did not need to pay its allies anymore!  You either joined Rome or you were an enemy!
      -Hadrian DGAF, of course.
-130 AD- on his way to Aegyptus, Hadrian stopped by Jerusalem.
   -During the Jewish revolts, the province had fallen into decline.
      -It had been significantly depopulated, the Temple of Solomon had been destroyed, entire cities had been razed, etc.
         -The Jewish high priests also no longer had any political authority.
   -Hadrian's plan to improve Judea was to erase its Jewish culture and Judaism itself and assimilate the province into a Hellenistic colony.
      -Ordered Jerusalem to be rebuilt, and he then named renamed it "Aelia Capitolina".
         -The name comes from Hadrian's full name (Publius Aelius Hadrianus) and Jupiter Capitolinus, the temple to Jupiter built on the Capitoline Hill back in Rome.
            -Hadrian also built a temple to Jupiter on top of the site of the Temple of Solomon (AKA The Second Temple).  Of course, this would thoroughly enrage the Jews and would spark another Jewish revolt in 132 AD.
-Quick note about Hadrian's sexuality and his relationship with Antinous.
   -The ancient Romans didn't really have a concept of "gay".  They just thought there were "tops" and "bottoms", and being a top was "good" (masculine) and being a bottom was "bad" (feminine).  It seems like Hadrian may have been down for both, but he had zero attraction to women and was instead in a relationship with Antinous, the teenage boy whom he had met in the province of Bithynia and loved to travel with.  They also lived together as well at Hadrian's villa.
      -Also, the Romans, like the Greeks, had a cultural concept of younger boys hooking up with older men in a sort of "patron-client" relationship.
   -Antinous was born around 111 AD in Bithynia and was by all accounts and extremely beautiful young man.
      -Around 124 AD he was enrolled in an imperial page program which trained young men to be couriers, valets, servants, etc.
         -After serving Hadrian when the emperor was in Bithynia, Hadrian had Antinous move to his personal villa in Tibur in 125 AD.  After this, wherever Hadrian went, Antinous was close by.
-Anyway, in 130 AD Hadrian went to Aegyptus to tour the province.
   -On the way to Memphis, Hadrian stopped in the city of Hermopolis to check out a temple built by Ramses II.
      -We still don't know exactly what happened, but during this time Antinous mysteriously died.  There are a bunch of theories of course as to what went down- it was a swimming accident; he committed suicide; he was despairing over being stuck as Hadrian's sex slave; he was killed in a ritual sacrifice; etc.
         -Anyway, regardless of what happened Hadrian seemed really sad so he founded a new cult to worship Antinous as a god, and Hadrian had a number of statues and monuments built in his honor throughout the empire.
            -The cult spread quickly in the East; cities realized that an easy way to curry favor with Hadrian was to give money and influence to the cult.
               -In fact, the cult became so popular in the East that its only competition (as far as mystery cults went) was a strange new cult that revolved around the teachings and worship of a mysterious man who had been named Jesus Christ.
            -The Senate was outraged at Hadrian's actions regarding the deification of Antinous.
               -Antinous had not been of imperial blood, he was just some boy lover of Hadrian's! 
                  -Additionally, Hadrian had not sought the permission of the Senate to do this, which up to this point had always been the precedent. 
            -Hadrian then founded a new city in Aegyptus, Antinopolis (near modern-day Mallawi, Minya), in Antinous' honor, near the site where he had died.  Hadrian then headed to Alexandria before returning to Greece.
-132 AD- Hadrian was in Athens when he received news of a new Jewish revolt in Judea.
   -The revolt had not been spontaneous; it had most likely been in the works right after Hadrian left Judea.
      -The Jews had constructed a series of cave tunnels and underground networks, and had also gotten the local blacksmiths to forge shitty weapons and armor for the local Roman garrisons. 
         -When this equipment was rejected by the local legions, the Jews would rework it into high-quality equipment for their own armies instead of throwing it out.  Thus, the Roman troops were completely shocked when they realized how well-armed the Jewish rebels were.
   -The revolt was led by a dude named Simon Bar Kokhba (most-likely born as Bar Koseva or Ben Koseva or something like that) who had been pronounced by at least one leading sage as "the Messiah" ("Bar Kokhba" means "Son of a Star" in Aramaic and is based off the same star prophecy found in Numbers 24 in the Old Testament).
      -The local governor , Tineius Rufus, found his two legions quickly overwhelmed by the massive uprising, and immediately ordered for reinforcements to be sent in from Syria and Aegyptus. 
         -However, these reinforcements were not properly prepared for the Jewish style of guerrilla warfare, and the legion from Aegyptus was completely annihilated!
            -With these victories, Simon Bar Kokhba declared Judea's independence from Rome! 
               -They even began issuing their own coins and laws and shit.
               -Realizing the gravity of the situation, Hadrian summoned Sextus Julius Severus, the governor of Britannia and a genius general, to Judea to help lead the legions there in order to quell the rebellion.  He soon arrived in Judea with reinforcements.
                  -Hadrian and Severus' plan was to use brute force and overwhelming numbers to bring down the rebellion. 
                     -It was a brutal grind, but the rebellion was finally squashed by 135 AD.  It took 12 legions and the destruction of approximately 50 cities and 1000 towns and villages to finally pacify the region. 
                         -While the Romans suffered heavy casualties, it is estimated that approximately 600,000 Jews were killed during this time.
                            -Many scholars mark this as the true beginning of the Jewish diaspora. 
                               -This example of the brutal nature of how Rome pacified rebellious regions is why Tacitus famously quoted a Briton chieftain who said "the Romans make a desert, and they call it 'peace'."
   -Thus, because Judea had been so depopulated as a result of Jews either fleeing the province or being exterminated, Hadrian decided to repopulate the province with Greco-Romans.
      -The Jews were thus banned from entering Aelia Capitolina (Jerusalem).  Also banned was the practice of circumcision, the Hebrew calendar, and Jewish laws based on the Torah.
         -Tons of sacred scrolls were burned at the Temple of Jupiter (previously the Second Temple), where Hadrian installed statues of both Jupiter AND himself.
            -For many years after this, Jewish scholars would be routinely executed.
            -The province was then combined with province of Syria and was renamed Syria Palestina.
               -"Palestina" (Palestine) comes from the name for the ancient region of Philistia, the land of the Philistines, who were eventually conquered by the Israelites.
-The Bar Kokhba Revolt obviously had a huge effect on Jewish history, as this region would not be a center for Jewish life and culture for almost 2000 years!!
   -Thus, Hadrian has been forever despised as one of the most hated people in Jewish history, with his name usually followed by "may his bones be crushed!"