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Simon Bar Giora (alternatively known as Simeon Bar Giora or Simon Ben Giora or Shimon Bar Giora) was a leader of the Sicarii
Sicarii

Sicarii is a term applied, in the decades immediately preceding the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE, to an extremist splinter group to the Jewish Zealots, who attempted to expel the Roman Empire and their partisans from Judea....
 faction during the First Jewish-Roman War
First Jewish-Roman War

The first Jewish-Roman War , sometimes called The Great Revolt , was the first of three Jewish-Roman wars by the Jews of Iudaea Province against the Roman Empire ....
 in the 1st century Judea
Judea

Judea or Jud?a is the name given to the mountainous southern part of the historic Land of Israel , an area now divided between Israel and the West Bank ....
.

History
In the year 68 (the third year of the revolt), four Jewish leaders emerged: John of Giscala
John of Giscala

John of Giscala or Johannes ben Levi , was a leader of the Jewish revolt against the Romans in the First Jewish-Roman War.The Romans attacked Gush Halav , John's home town in the Upper Galilee and burned it to the ground....
, Simon bar Giora, Eleazar ben Simon
Eleazar ben Simon

Eleazar ben Simon was a Zealot leader during the First Jewish-Roman War who fought against the armies of Cestius Gallus, Vespasian, and Titus Flavius....
, and Joseph ben Matthias
Josephus

Josephus , also known as Yosef Ben Matityahu and, after he became a Roman citizenship, as Titus Flavius Josephus, was a first-century Jewish historian and apologist of priestly and royal ancestry who survived and recorded the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70....
. As a leader of the Jewish revolt against Rome, the Idumean Simon bar Giora – whose epithet
Epithet

An epithet is a descriptive word or phrase accompanying or occurring in place of the name of a person or thing, which has become a fixed formula....
 probably means 'son of a proselyte
Proselyte

Proselyte, from the Koine Greek p??s???t??/proselytos, is used in the Septuagint for "stranger", i.e. a "newcomer to Israel"; a "sojourner in the land", and in the New Testament for a Conversion to Judaism from Ancient Greek religion....
' – was the most important rival of John of Gischala.






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Simon Bar Giora (alternatively known as Simeon Bar Giora or Simon Ben Giora or Shimon Bar Giora) was a leader of the Sicarii
Sicarii

Sicarii is a term applied, in the decades immediately preceding the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE, to an extremist splinter group to the Jewish Zealots, who attempted to expel the Roman Empire and their partisans from Judea....
 faction during the First Jewish-Roman War
First Jewish-Roman War

The first Jewish-Roman War , sometimes called The Great Revolt , was the first of three Jewish-Roman wars by the Jews of Iudaea Province against the Roman Empire ....
 in the 1st century Judea
Judea

Judea or Jud?a is the name given to the mountainous southern part of the historic Land of Israel , an area now divided between Israel and the West Bank ....
.

History


In the year 68 (the third year of the revolt), four Jewish leaders emerged: John of Giscala
John of Giscala

John of Giscala or Johannes ben Levi , was a leader of the Jewish revolt against the Romans in the First Jewish-Roman War.The Romans attacked Gush Halav , John's home town in the Upper Galilee and burned it to the ground....
, Simon bar Giora, Eleazar ben Simon
Eleazar ben Simon

Eleazar ben Simon was a Zealot leader during the First Jewish-Roman War who fought against the armies of Cestius Gallus, Vespasian, and Titus Flavius....
, and Joseph ben Matthias
Josephus

Josephus , also known as Yosef Ben Matityahu and, after he became a Roman citizenship, as Titus Flavius Josephus, was a first-century Jewish historian and apologist of priestly and royal ancestry who survived and recorded the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70....
. As a leader of the Jewish revolt against Rome, the Idumean Simon bar Giora – whose epithet
Epithet

An epithet is a descriptive word or phrase accompanying or occurring in place of the name of a person or thing, which has become a fixed formula....
 probably means 'son of a proselyte
Proselyte

Proselyte, from the Koine Greek p??s???t??/proselytos, is used in the Septuagint for "stranger", i.e. a "newcomer to Israel"; a "sojourner in the land", and in the New Testament for a Conversion to Judaism from Ancient Greek religion....
' – was the most important rival of John of Gischala. He was a very competent general who attracted some forty thousand soldiers, promising "liberty for slaves and rewards for the free", a political program that was sufficient to incur the aversion of the conservative Flavius Josephus. The Idumean was invited by that part of the population of Jerusalem that feared the power of John; he entered the city in the spring of 69. There, he ruled as a king, until he was forced to surrender to the Romans.

Within Jerusalem, civil war raged among the Zealots led by Eleazar the Priest, the Sicarii
Sicarii

Sicarii is a term applied, in the decades immediately preceding the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE, to an extremist splinter group to the Jewish Zealots, who attempted to expel the Roman Empire and their partisans from Judea....
 led by Simon bar Giora, and another opposing group led by John of Giscala
John of Giscala

John of Giscala or Johannes ben Levi , was a leader of the Jewish revolt against the Romans in the First Jewish-Roman War.The Romans attacked Gush Halav , John's home town in the Upper Galilee and burned it to the ground....
. Flavius Josephus reported that John's men often paraded the streets in women’s clothing, seducing and killing men for sport. Eventually, Simon managed to defeat John in a siege on the Temple of Jerusalem. During this time, Eleazar pulled forces from John's ranks, forming yet another faction. Reportedly, Jerusalem was so war-torn that its citizens had to climb over dead bodies in the Temple to offer their sacrifices.

Quotation from the Jewish War by Josephus

Simon had been in the upper city during the siege of Jerusalem, but when the Roman army had got within the walls and were laying the city waste, he then took the most faithful of his friends with him, and among them several stone-cutters, with those iron tools which belonged to their occupation. Taking with them as great a quantity of provisions as would suffice them for a long time, he let himself and all them down into a certain subterranean cavern that was not visible above ground. Now, so far as had been digged of old, they went onward along it without disturbance; but where they met with solid earth, they dug a mine under ground, and hoping that they should be able to proceed so far as to rise from underground in a safe place, and by that means escape. But when they came to make the experiment, they were disappointed of their hope; for the miners could make but small progress, and that with difficulty also because their provisions, though they distributed them by measure, began to fail them.


Simon, thinking he might be able to astonish and elude the Romans, put on a white frock, and buttoned upon him a purple cloak, and appeared out of the ground in the place where the temple had formerly been. At the first, indeed, those that saw him were greatly astonished, and stood still where they were; but afterward they came nearer to him, and asked him who he was. Now Simon would not tell them, but bid them call for their captain; and when they ran to call him, Terentius Rufus (who was left to command the army there) came to Simon, and learned of him the whole truth, and kept him in bonds, and let Titus know that he was taken. Thus did God bring this man to be punished for what bitter and savage tyranny he had exercised against his countrymen.

Demise

Simon Bar Giora was hurled down the Tarpeian Rock
Tarpeian Rock

The Tarpeian Rock was a steep cliff of the southern summit of the Capitoline Hill, overlooking the Roman Forum in Ancient Rome. It was used during the Roman Republic as an execution site....
 by his Roman captors.

Bar Giora coins


Bar Giora coins bore the inscription "Redemption of Zion
Zion

Zion is a term that most often designates the Land of Israel and its capital, Jerusalem. The word is found in texts dating back almost three millennia....
", indicating that there was a religious aspect to Simon's bid for power. This does not prove that he was considered the Messiah
Messiah

Messiah literally means "anointed ".In Jewish messiah tradition and Jewish eschatology, messiah refers to a future monarch of United Monarchy from the Davidic line, who will rule the people of Israelite#The Twelve Tribes, and herald the Messianic Age of global peace....
, but some historians think that it is likely and point to the fact that he wore a royal robe in the Temple as another indication.