Simeon Bar Kochba (died 135) led the last Jewish revolt against Roman rule in Palestine, 132-135.

Simeon Bar Kochba is surrounded by legend, and little is known of his life. From references in the Talmud, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Roman sources, he emerges as a self-confident and decisive but temperamental man of great vigor and valor. Signatures on documents found in 1951 and later in caves near the Dead Sea indicate that Bar Kochba's true surname was Bar Kosba, the "son of Kosba" or the "man from Kosba." In the Talmud he is referred to as Bar Koziba, Aramaic for "son of a lie." This play on his name was probably coined by his critics or by those who were deceived in their belief that he was the Messiah.

The major cause of the uprising led by Bar Kochba was the great hostility of the Jews toward the Romans...