Xiphilinus and the Causes for the Outbreak of the Bar Kokhba Revolt

Abstract

The Epitome of Xiphilinus, an abbreviation of books 36-80 of Cassius Dio’s Roman History created in eleventh-century Byzantium, because of the incomplete state of preservation of the latter is an extremely important narrative source for contemporary researchers of ancient Rome during the Principate period. This is also the case with the Bar Kokhba uprising, a conflict relatively poorly documented in narrative sources. The greatest debates revolve around the causes of this conflict for which the Epitome of Xiphilinus constitutes the most extensive surviving narrative source. The fact that Dio’s work has not been preserved in the original makes scholars question the account presented by Xiphilinus, whom they perceive as a Byzantine monk writing from a Christian and even anti-Jewish perspective.