132–136 AD final Jewish uprising, Roman crushing of Judea, and Hadrian's pagan refounding of Jerusalem
The final, desperate Jewish revolt led by Simon bar Kokhba against Emperor Hadrian, which resulted in the loss of 580,000 Jewish lives, the destruction of 50 fortified outposts, the complete expulsion of Jews from Jerusalem, and the reconstruction of Jerusalem as the pagan Roman colony Aelia Capitolina with a temple of Jupiter Capitolinus over the Temple Mount.
Rigorous 4-part empirical analysis separating ancient text from bias and consensus
Cassius Dio (*Roman History* 69.12–14) and archaeological discoveries of Bar Kokhba's military orders in the Cave of Letters document the bitter guerrilla war, culminating in the siege of Betar in 135 AD and Hadrian renaming the province from Iudaea to 'Syria Palaestina' to erase Jewish identity.
Brought to its historical culmination the desolation of Jerusalem prophesied by Daniel and Jesus, sealing the nearly two-millennium Jewish exile (Diaspora) until modern times.
Hadrian erected a temple of Venus over the traditional site of Golgotha and the Tomb of Jesus; ironically, this pagan monument marked and preserved the exact location where Constantine later built the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 326 AD.
Roman military annals recording the suppression of a stubborn rebellion at immense Roman military cost (Hadrian omitted the customary formula 'I and the legions are well' in his address to the Senate).