In 132 AD, Simeon Bar Kosiba, a rebel leader who assumed the messianic name Simon Bar Kokhba ('son of a star'), led the people of Judaea and Galilee in open rebellion, aiming to oust the occupying Romans and establish their own independent Jewish state. During the ensuing 'Bar Kokhba Revolt' (the Second Jewish War), the Jewish rebels held their own against the crack Roman troops for four years. The cost of this rebellion was catastrophic: hundreds of thousands of casualties, the destruction of Jerusalem as the Jewish capital and the expulsion of the Jewish community from the region, which only effectively ended with the founding of the State of Israel in 1948.

This fully illustrated volume explores the gripping story of the uprising, profiling its rebel leader Bar Kokhba as well as the Emperor Hadrian and his generals, and assesses the impact that this violent rebellion had on the region and those that were displaced.