Jacob and Simon uprising
Date 46–48 Location JudaeaGalilee Result Roman victory
Belligerents
Jewish Zealots	Roman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Jacob  Simon	Tiberius Julius Alexander

TheJacob and Simon uprising ; (Hebrew: מרד יעקב וסימון) was a revolt instigated inRoman Judea by brothers Simon and Jacob in 46–48 CE.^[1] The revolt began as a sporadic insurgency and when climaxed in 48 was quickly put down by Roman authorities, and both brothers were executed.^[2]

TheCrisis under Caligula (37–41) has been proposed as the "first open break betweenRome and the Jews", even though problems were already evident during theCensus of Quirinius in 6 and underSejanus (before 31).^[3]

Josephus'Jewish Antiquities^[4] states that there were three main Jewish sects at this time, thePharisees, theSadducees, and theEssenes. The so-calledZealots were a "fourth sect" - a sect curiously unnamed in Josephus, just as the zealots clearly did not refer to themselves as "zealots" -, founded byJudas of Galilee against Quirinius' tax reform, shortly after the Roman Empire declared what had most recently been thetetrarchy of Herod Archelaus to be aRoman province, and that they "agree in all other things with the Pharisaic notions; but they have an inviolable attachment to liberty, and say that God is to be their only Ruler and Lord." (18.1.6)

According to theJewish Encyclopedia article onZealots:^[5]

Judah of Gaulanitis is regarded as the founder of the Zealots, who are identified as the proponents of the Fourth Philosophy. In the original sources, however, no such identification is anywhere clearly made, and the question is hardly raised of the relationship between the Sicarii, the upholders of the Fourth Philosophy, and the Zealots. Josephus himself in his general survey of the various groups of freedom fighters (War 7:268–70) enumerates the Sicarii first, whereas he mentions the Zealots last.

Others have also argued that the group was not so clearly marked out (before the first war of 66-70/3) as some have thought.^[6]

Information on the revolt which erupted in Galilee, then part of theRoman Judea province, is limited. The sources however indicate that it was motivated by anti-Roman sentiments and driven by the Zealots. The uprising began as a sporadic insurgency, and climaxed in 48. Two ofJudas the Galilean' sons, Jacob and Simon, were involved and were crucified byTiberius Julius Alexander, theprocurator Augusti from 46 to 48.^[7][8]

• List of conflicts in the Near East

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• 40s in the Roman Empire
• 1st-century Judaism
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• Religion-based wars
• 40s conflicts
• Jewish rebellions

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