This is CBS Iron the World. I'm John Batchel.

Barry Strauss is the author of the new book, Jews v. Rome.

This is two centuries of rebellion, but we come now to the last major rebellion in the

Holy Land until and if, many centuries later.

This is a rebellion that we know because of a man's name, Simon Barcocca.

The year is 132, in other words, 15 years into Hadrian's empire.

Hadrian is very successful in all directions.

He's a defensive-minded emperor then, not the offensive that Trajan was.

You all know him best is Hadrian's Wall, which you can visit in North Britain.

He built other defensive positions as well. And then Simon Barcocpa. Who was he?

What do we know about him, Professor? Well, we don't know as much as we'd like. We know that his

real name is not Simon Barcokpa. It's Simon Barcoseba or Kosiva. And that either refers to Sabar to Barmean son of it either refers to the name of

his father or to the town that he came from and much disagreement about where that town might have

been barcochpa is a nom de guerre it's a name he takes on for the war and and it's a very significant name, because it means the son of the star, a son of a star. And that is one of the terms used to refer to the Messiah. It's very clear that his followers thought he was the Messiah. And perhaps the leading rabbi of the day, Rabbi Akiva, a beloved figure in Judaism to this day, accepted him as the Messiah.

Because for the Jews, the Messiah was a human person, a human being who is going to lead the redemption.

And so there is this messianic, apocalyptic aspect, even to this revolt, as there had been to the earlier ones.

Importantly, they're not defending Jerusalem.

That's been wrecked and destroyed and rebuilt, as the professor illustrated.

But they are taking tactics that we recognize here in the 21st century as very successful

asymmetrical warfare, hybrid warfare.

How do they do it, professor?

So he's clearly someone with a lot of military experience, and there's part of me that

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