We have seen that in the period of about 100 bc to ad 100 there were Jewish populations in cities of many parts of the Roman Empire. They were often in a state of unrest or open conflict with inhabitants of other races, or with Rome, or with both. No doubt many such conflicts have gone unrecorded, and uncertainty attends any enquiry into the relations between Jews and the Roman administration in the second and following centuries of our era.

There seems to have been a general movement towards revolt by Jews in the Empire in the time of Trajan and Hadrian, but the sources are so thin that it is impossible to give an accurate or full account of it. It seems that there was a fierce revolt in Cyprus, but how it was ended is not known, though a decree was made which forbade any Jew for the future ever to set foot on the island. Dio implies that this ban was in force a century later (early third century) and it is not known to what extent it was ignored, or if it was repealed, and if so at what date.

In Mesopotamia the Jews revolted in the rear of Trajan's advance into Parthian territory, but it is far from clear whether they were joining in a general rebellion or initiating their own. Lusius Quietus is reported to have obeyed Trajan's order to sweep Jews out of the province so well that he was made legate of Palestine as a reward (c. 117).