The Kitos War occurred amid the broader Diaspora Revolt of 115–117, which saw Jewish uprisings across the Roman East, including Egypt, Libya, Cyprus, and Mesopotamia.

Following the suppression of the revolt in Mesopotamia, the Roman general Lusius Quietus (also known as Kitos) was appointed consul and governor of Judaea by Emperor Trajan.

Cestius Gallus, the legate of Syria, brought the Syrian army, based on XII Fulminata, reinforced by auxiliary troops, to restore order and quell the revolt.

The suppression of the revolt was then handed to General Vespasian and his son Titus, who assembled four legions and began advancing through the country, starting with Galilee in 67.

The revolt ended when legions under Titus besieged and destroyed the center of rebel resistance in Jerusalem in 70 and defeated the remaining Jewish strongholds later on.

Cities with substantial Jewish populations, Nisibis, Edessa, Seleucia and Arbela (now Erbil, Iraq) joined the rebellion and slaughtered their small Roman garrisons.

[5] Lusius Quietus, whom Trajan had held in high regard and who had served Rome so well, was quietly stripped of his command once Hadrian had secured the imperial title.

Further developments occurred in Judaea Province in 130, when Hadrian visited the Eastern Mediterranean and, according to Cassius Dio, made the decision to rebuild the ruined city of Jerusalem as the Roman colony of Aelia Capitolina, derived from his own name.

That decision, together with Hadrian's other sanctions against the Jews, was allegedly one of the reasons for the eruption of the 132 Bar Kokhba revolt, an extremely violent uprising that stretched Roman military resources to the limit.