ADRIAN, the fifteenth emperor of Rome. This prince is not mentioned in the New Testament, but some interpreters are of opinion that he is alluded to in Rev. viii. 10. 11. where Barchochebas, the famous Jewish impostor, is thought to be foretold, [but without sufficient grounds. R.] The Jews having created several disturbances in the reign of Trajan, Adrian sent a colony to Jerusalem, for the purpose of keeping them in subjection, and also built within the walls of the city a temple to Jupiter. Not enduring that a strange colony should occupy their city, and introduce a foreign religion, the Jews began to mutiny, about A. D. 134, and Barchochebas, who about the same time made his appearance under the assumed character of the Messiah, animated them in their rebellion against the Romans. The presence of Adrian, who was at this time in Syria or Egypt, restrained in some measure their proceedings, but after his return to Rome, they fortified several places, and prepared for a vigorous resistance. Their proceedings, and the great increase in the numbers of the seditious, induced Adrian to send Tinnius Rufus into Judea. The Roman gene ral marched against them, and a dreadful slaughter ensued. The Jews fought desperately, and Rufus having been defeated in several conflicts, Adrian sent to his assistance Julius Severus, one of .the greatest generals of his age. Severus besieged Bether or Bethoron, where the Jews had entrenched themselves, which he at length took, and put many to the sword. Others were sold as cattle, at the fairs of Mamre and Gaza ; and the rest were sent into Egypt, being forbidden, under a severe penalty, to return to their own city. Jerome (in Zach. xi. 7.) applies to this calamity of the Jews the words of Zechariah: "I will feed the flock of slaughter." And the Hebrew doctors apply Jer. xxxi. 15 : "A voice was heard in Raman, lamentation and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children," &C. The Jews purchased with a sum of money the lib erty, not of entering Jerusalem, but only of looking from a distance on it, and going to lament its fall and desolation. See Aelias.

The number of Roman soldiers and auxiliary troops that perished in the course of this war, which lasted, as Jerome and the Rabbins say, three years and a half, (Hieronym. in Dan. ix. Basuage Hist, des Juifs, torn. ii. page 133.) or, as others suppose, only two years, was very great. Dio remarks, that the emperor, in writing of the termination of the war to the senate, did not use the common form in the be ginning of his letters, "If you and your children are in good health, I am glad of it ; I and the army are in good condition ;" in consequence of the great losses he had sustained. Dio. lib. 69. page 794. After this revolt, Adrian finished the building of Jerusalem, and changed its name to Aelia, which see.