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Years Covered: 130-136

We end the season with the hopes of a messiah ending in bloodshed and expulsion. This is the end of Jews in Judea, for a long time.

• Simon bar Kosiba (Bar Kokhba) x
• Rabbi Akiva x
• Babatha bat Shimon x
• Judah (husband of Babatha) x
• Elazar (High Priest of the revolt) x
• Shimon ben Gamliel II
• Rabbi Tarfon x
• Judah bar Ilai
• Jose the Galilean
• Bruriah
• Rabbi Meir
• Shimon bar Yochai
• Jose ben Halafta
• Elazar ben Shamua
• Judah ben Bava x

• Hadrian x
• Tinius Rufus
• Julius Severus
• Gargilius Antiquus

• Justin Martyr

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Years Covered: 100-130

What are the ways of the Jews without a temple? The sages of Yavne will try to answer this question as the Jewish people try to find their place in a Greco-Roman world that's getting rather heavy on the Greco.

Cast of Characters:

• Simon bar Kosiba (Bar Kokhba)
• Gamliel II x
• Rabbi Joshua ben Hananiah
• Rabbi Akiva
• Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus
• Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah
• Rabbi Tarfon
• Shimon bar Yochai
• Yohanan ben Zakkai x
• Imma Shalom
• Rachel
• Lukuas (Andreas) x
• Papus x
• Lulyanus x
• Aquila of Sinope

• Trajan x
• Hadrian
• Pliny the Youngerx
• Quintus Marcius Turbo
• Lucius Quietus x
• Vespasian x
• Titus x

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Years covered: 70-100

What happened to all the people who survived the destruction of the temple? We take a look at their lives.

• Flavius Josephus
• Simon bar Giora x
• John of Gischala
• Berenice
• Herod Agrippa II x
• Tiberius Julius Alexander
• Julius Antiochus Epiphanes
• Epiphanes of Commagene
• Mariamne
• Demetrius the Alabarch
• Eleazar ben Yair x
• Menahem x
• Judas the Galilean x
• Shimon ben Gamliel x
• Yohanan ben Zakkai x
• Gamliel I x
• Gamliel (son of Shimon ben Gamliel)
• Rabbi Yishmael x
• Hyrcanus
• Justus
• Agrippa (son of Josephus)
• Jonathan (the Zealot) x

• Titus x
• Vespasian x
• Flavius Silva
• Domitian x
• Nerva x
• Antonius Felix
• Nero x
• Caligula x

• Drusilla
• Agrippa (nephew of Berenice) x
• Apion x
• Philo of Alexandria x

If you want, I can also tighten this further (e.g., only characters with speaking or narrative agency) or normalize it into a production-ready dramatis personae for the episode notes.

tighten to people that wer alive between 68-100

Below is a tightened, names-only list, limited to people who were alive at some point between 68–100 CE.

An “x” marks those who died within that window.

• Flavius Josephus x
• Simon bar Giora x
• John of Gischala
• Berenice
• Herod Agrippa II x
• Tiberius Julius Alexander
• Julius Antiochus Epiphanes
• Epiphanes of Commagene x
• Demetrius the Alabarch
• Eleazar ben Yair x
• Shimon ben Gamliel x
• Yohanan ben Zakkai x
• Gamliel (son of Shimon ben Gamliel)
• Rabbi Yishmael x
• Jonathan (the Zealot) x

• Titus x
• Vespasian x
• Flavius Silva
• Domitian x
• Nerva x
• Antonius Felix
• Nero x

• Drusilla
• Agrippa (nephew of Berenice) x
• Apion x

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Years covered: 67-70

Perhaps the most momentous event in all of Jewish history: the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. Vespasian meets Yochanan Ben Zakkai, and spares him, and consequentially, the Pharisees. He then has to take his place in the drama known as 'The year of Four Emperors', leaving Judea to his son Titus.

CAST OF CHARACTERS

The Jews:

• Josephus
• Herod Agrippa II
• Berenice
• Shimon ben Gamliel
• Hanania (former High Priest) x
• Joshua ben Gamla x
• Joseph ben Gurion x
• John of Gischala (John son of Levi)
• Simon bar Giora
• Eleazar son of Simon
• Phineas son of Samuel
• Tiberius Julius Alexander
• Marta bat Baitos x
• Yochanan ben Zakkai

The Romans:

• Vespasian
• Titus
• Nero x
• Servius Galba x
• Gaius Julius Vindex x
• Lucius Verginius Rufus
• Lucius Licinianus x
• Otho x
• Vitellius x
• Gaius Licinius Mucianus
• Marcus Antonius Primus

Other

• Gaius Julius Antiochus Epiphanes

Sources:

Josephus - War of The Jews

Babylonian Talmud, Gittin 55b–58a

Suetonius - The Lives of Caesars

Tacitus - The Histories

Sulpicius Severus - Chronicle 3.20

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Years covered: 67

The Romans make landfall in the Galilee to restore order. We relive the siege of Jotapata, where Jospehus made his name.

CAST OF CHARACTERS

JEWS:

• Herod Agrippa II
• Berenice
• Mattathias son of Theophilus x
• Joshua ben Gamla
• Eleazar ben Hanania
• Hanania ben Hanania x
• Shimon ben Gamliel
• Yochanan ben Zakkai
• Menahem ben Judah x
• Josephus
• Ben Batiach
• Joseph ben Gurion
• Eliezer ben Simon
• John son of Levi (John of Gischala)
• Tiberius Julius Alexander
• Simon bar Giora
• Nicanor

ROMANS

• Nero
• Gessius Florus x
• Cestius Gallus x
• Vespasian
• Titus

Sources:

War of the Jews - Josephus

The Lives of the Caesars - Seutonius

The Annals - Tacitus

Babylonian Talmud Bava Batra 21

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Years Covered: 44-66 AD

We chart Jospehus' formative years, which track the steady decline of relations between Rome and Judea, as Rome plunges into debt and civil war, and Judea into anarchy and rule by organized crime. It all culminates in an attack on Masada, and refusal to sacrifice to the health of the Roman Emperor.

Cast of Characters

• Herod Agrippa IIx
• Herod of Chalcis x
• Berenice
• Drusilla
• Queen Helene of Adiabene x
• Izates II x
• Ananias of Adiabene (merchant)
• Elazar of Galilee
• Alexander Lysimachus
• Tiberius Julius Alexander
• Jonathan the High Priest x
• Hanania ben Nadvai x
• Flavius Josephus
• Banus
• Zechariah ben Avkolas
• Kamtza
• Menahem son of Judah
• Salome
• Aristobulus of Chalcis
• James the Just x
• Paul of Tarsus x
• Alytrios
• Princess Symacho

• Emperor Claudius x
• Gaius Marsus
• Cuspius Fadus
• Ventidius Cumanus
• Marcus Antonius Felix
• Porcius Festus
• Lucceius Albinus
• Gessius Florus
• Cestius Gallus
• Nero
• Poppaea Sabina
• Agrippina the Younger x
• Pallas
• Otho
• Sporus

Sources:

War of the Jews - Josephus

Antiquities of the Jews - Josephus

The Book of Acts

The Lives of the Ceasars - Seutonius

The Annals - Tacitus

Talmud Bavli Gittin 55b–56a

Talmud Bavli Sukkah 2b

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Years Covered: 33-44

We continue to followHerod Agrippa—the politically nimble, debt-ridden, charm-wielding, luck-chasing Jewish prince of the early Roman Empire. A family quarrel propels Agrippa into a world of high-stakes intrigue stretching from Tyre to Alexandria, and from the courts of Roman governors to the inner circle of the Julio-Claudians themselves.

Meanwhile, the messiah claimant Jesus of Nazareth is dead, but that's not the end of the story. We also meet Philo of Alexandria, the Jew who tries to bridge the gap between Jewish and Greek thought.

Cast of Charaters

The Jews:

Herodians

-Herod Agrippa I x

-Herod Antipas x

-Herodias x

-Aristobulus

-Cypros

-Berenice

-Herod Agrippa II

-Drusilla

Pharisees and Sadducees

-Caiaphas

-Gamliel the Elder

-Simon bar Hillel

Jewish Christians

-Stephen x

-Simon Peter

-Saul/Paul of Tarsus

-Ananais

Jewish Diaspora

-Alexander Lysimacus

-Philo of Alexandria

-Anilai and Asinai x

The Romans

-Emperor Tiberius x

-Emperor Caligula x

-Emperor Claudius

-Tiberius Gemellus x

-Julia Drusilla x

-Aulus Avilius Flaccus

-Lucius Pomponius Flaccus x

-Lucius Vitellius

-Publius Petronius

-Gaius Vibius Marsus

-Marcellus

-Pontius Pilate

-Thallus

The Greek

-Apion

Sources:

Antiquities of the Jews - Josephus

The War of the Jews - Josephus

On the Embassy to Gaius - Philo of Alexandria

Against Flaccus - Philo of Alexandria

The Book of Acts

The Twelve Caesars - Seutonius

The Annals - Tacitus

The Talmud

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