SPEAKING OF THE BAR KOKHBA REVOLT, it is mentioned again in an Independent article on the Emperor Hadrian's sexual orientation. This in relation to an upcoming exhibition at the British Museum.

Hadrian the gay emperor
His attempt to fortify the Roman Empire is well known. But an exhibition focuses on another side of the man
By Arifa Akbar
Published: 11 January 2008

The bust is classically Roman, the face imperious. But this is no ordinary emperor. As a major new exhibition at the British Museum makes clear, Publius Aelius Traianus Hadrianus was not only a peacemaker who pulled his soldiers out of modern-day Iraq. He was also the first leader of Rome to make it clear that he was gay.

Hadrian: Empire and Conflict will see the bust make pilgrimages to both ends of Hadrian's Wall, the first time it has left the British Museum since being found in the Thames 200 years ago. But it is the singular life-story of the gay emperor that is likely to capture the interest of most visitors.

[...]

As the "people's king" – he travelled with his troops and ate the same rations – he laid the foundations of the Byzantine Empire and changed the name of Judea to create Palestine, among other legacies.

At times, however, even Hadrian's Rome played the role of violent occupier. During a suppression of a Jewish rebellion in Judea, Roman warriors were dispatched to take control ofthe region, leading to the death of 580,000 Jews. "It was probably as a punishment that he changed the name of Judea to Palestine," said Mr [Thorsten] Opper [curator of the exhibition].

The exhibition, which brings together loans from 31 countries, will display sculpture, bronzes and architectural fragments. Highlights include the Vindoanda tablets from Hadrian's Wall and a bronze head of the emperor discovered in the Thames in 1834, which will travel to both ends of Hadrian's Wall. The head comes from a statue that may have been erected in a public space in London AD122 to commemorate Hadrian's visit to Britain.

Other highlights are a bronze bust from Israel found in 1975, a papyrus fragment of Hadrian's autobiography from the Bodleian Library that has never before been on public display, fragments from Hadrian's tomb and gilded bronze peacocks measuring two metres lent by the Vatican's Museum for the first time.

UPDATE: The Guardian has an article on the exhibition too, with some additional information of interest:

The exhibition, with loans from the Louvre, the Vatican and 29 other institutions, will include beautiful sculptures only excavated in the last few years, exquisite portraits both of his wife and his male lover Antonius, one tattered piece of papyrus which is the only surviving fragment of his autobiography - and house keys found hidden in a cave in Israel, left by people fleeing the aftermath of the Jewish rebellion.