communities in Egypt, Cyrenaica and Mesopotamia during the reign of Trajan in the Kitos War. The proximate reasons seem to centre around the construction of a new city, Aelia Capitolina, over the ruins of Jerusalem and the erection of a temple to Jupiter on the Temple mount. Until recently, some historians had tried to question the Colonia foundation event as one of the causes of the revolt, suggesting to rather time the Colonia establishment to the aftermath of the revolt as a punishment. However, the 2014 archaeological finding of the Legio Fretensis inscription in Jerusalem dedicated to Hadrian and dated to 129/130 CE, as well as identification of Colonia Aelia Capitolina struck coins have since been largely accepted as confirmation to the sequence of events depicted in Jewish traditional literature. One interpretation involves the visit in 130 CE of Hadrian to the ruins of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. At first sympathetic towards the Jews, Hadrian promised to rebuild the Temple, but the Jews felt betrayed when they found out that he intended to build a temple dedicated to Jupiter upon the ruins of the Second Temple. A rabbinic version of this story claims that Hadrian planned on rebuilding the Temple, but that a malevolent Samaritan convinced him not to. The reference to a malevolent Samaritan is, however, a familiar device of Jewish literature. An additional legion, the VI Ferrata, arrived in the province to maintain order. Works on Aelia Capitolina, as Jerusalem was to be called, commenced in 131 CE. The governor of Judea, Tineius Rufus, performed the foundation ceremony, which involved ploughing over the designated city limits. "Ploughing up the Temple", seen as a religious offence, turned many Jews against the Roman authorities. The Romans issued a coin inscribed Aelia Capitolina. A disputed tradition, based on the single source of the Historia Augusta, regarded as 'unreliable and problematic,' states tensions rose after Hadrian banned circumcision, referred to as mutilare genitalia taken to mean brit milah. Were the claim true it has been conjectured that Hadrian, as a Hellenist, would have viewed circumcision as an undesirable form of mutilation. The claim is often considered suspect. Timeline of events First phase Eruption of the revolt Jewish leaders carefully planned the second revolt to avoid the numerous mistakes that had plagued the first First Jewish–Roman War sixty years earlier. In 132, the revolt, led by Simon bar Kokhba and Elasar, quickly