August 8: Hadrian the Evil One

Trajan, the emperor of Rome, died on this date in 117 CE, paving the way for his cousin Hadrian (Publius Aelius Hadrianus) to take the throne. Hadrian was already suppressing the second Jewish uprising against Rome (the Kitos War, 115-117) and would ultimately respond to the third, the Bar Kokhba revolt (132-135), by destroying the Jewish national presence in Palestine and killing close to 600,000 Jews. It was Hadrian who tortured and killed Rabbi Akiva and the nine other rabbis who are honored during the Yom Kippur martyrology. He is referred to as “the Evil One” in numerous Jewish texts.

“When Rabbi Akiva would see Bar Kokhba he would say, ‘There is the King Messiah.’ [To which] Rav Yokhanan ben Torta said, ‘Akiva, grass will grow from your cheeks, and still the son of David will not come.’” —Palestinian Talmud, Taanit 68d