The revolt led by Simon bar Kosiba from 132 to 136 CE briefly established an independent administration in Judaea, documented by its own coinage and by letters recovered from caves in the Judaean desert. Rome committed a very large force and reduced the rebels stronghold by stronghold, ending at Betar. Cassius Dio records the destruction of 985 villages and 50 fortified places and 580,000 killed in action, with many more dead from famine and disease. Afterwards Hadrian refounded Jerusalem as the Roman colony Aelia Capitolina, barred Jews from entering it, and renamed the province Syria Palaestina; observance of Jewish law was restricted for a period. Archaeological survey confirms that Jewish settlement in Judaea proper collapsed and did not recover, while Galilee became the centre of Jewish life and of rabbinic activity. Dio's figures are literary and cannot be verified, and the general expulsion of Jews from the whole land often attached to this event in later tradition is not supported by the evidence.
Roman forces under Hadrian crushed the Judaean revolt led by Simon bar Kosiba, depopulated much of Judaea, barred Jews from Jerusalem and renamed the province
Estimates rest on carrying-capacity and settlement-survey work rather than records. Magen Broshi argued that Roman Palestine as a whole could not have exceeded about one million people, of whom Judaea proper held perhaps 500,000-700,000. Cassius Dio's report of 580,000 killed and 985 villages destroyed is close to or above the whole plausible population and is treated by most historians as inflated, though excavation of the refuge caves confirms devastation and depopulation across the Judaean hills.
The upper bound of 580,000 killed in the fighting is Cassius Dio's figure, written about a century after the events and widely regarded as far exceeding Judaea's population; Dio adds an unquantified further toll from famine, disease and fire. No lower bound can be defended, since no independent record of casualties survives, though archaeological survey confirms severe and permanent settlement loss in Judaea.
Cassius Dio records the razing of villages and fortresses and mass killing; the refoundation of Jerusalem as a pagan colony, the exclusion of Jews from the city and the renaming of the province are recorded in Roman sources and confirmed by the coinage and inscriptions of Aelia Capitolina.
Palestine, Israel