Barcochba
or BARCOKECAS ("son of a star"), a famous Jewish impostor, whose real name was Simeon, and who lived in the 2d century A. D. After the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, the Jews, at different periods, sought to regain their independence; and Barcochba, seeing his countrymen still impatient of the Roman yo yoke, res resolved to attempt their emancipation. With this view he sought to sound the dispositions of his co-religionists of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, Italy and Gaul, and sent forth emissaries, who traveled over all the provinces of the Roman Empire.
When all was ready Barcochba solemnly announced himself as King and Messiah, and seized by surprise on many fortified places. All who refused to submit to him, particularly the Christians, were put to death. Great numbers of Jews, from all parts of the world, hastened to join his standard; and so formidable did this revolt become that Julius Severus, general of the armies of the Emperor Adrian, was compelled to act with extreme caution, and to content himself with surprising detached bodies of the enemy. Soon, however, the superior discipline of the Romans prevailed. The Jewish army, shut up in the fortress of Bethar, succumbed under fatigue and famine; Barcochba perished miserably, and all his followers were massacred or reduced to slavery. From this period may be dated the entire dispersion of the race of Israel over the face of the earth.