Betar
A fortress about ten kilometres south-west of Jerusalem, held by the rebels in the Bar Kokhba revolt. Eusebius puts its long siege in Hadrian’s eighteenth year, AD 134–135, and the Mishnah remembers its capture.
Betar lay at the village of Battir, south-west of Jerusalem. Eusebius, following Aristo of Pella, calls it “Bithara”, a very strong fortress not far from Jerusalem, where the war was at its height in Hadrian’s eighteenth year and where the rebels were worn down by hunger and thirst (Eusebius, Church History 4.6). The Mishnah counts its capture among the disasters remembered on the ninth of Av (Mishnah, Ta’anit 4:6). The coordinates are those of the ruin identified with it, from the Pleiades gazetteer.
What happened here
- AD 132 to AD 135, estimated dateThe Bar Kokhba Revolt and Aelia Capitolina
The Jews of Judaea rise against Rome under Simon bar Kosiba, called Bar Kokhba. Hadrian’s armies crush the revolt at great cost, Jerusalem becomes the Roman colony Aelia Capitolina, and Jews are barred from the city.
Primary sources
Church History
- Eusebius, Church History 4.6newadvent.org
Mishnah
- Mishnah, Ta’anit 4:6sefaria.org