Texts on Bar Kochba: Other texts
Coin of Simon ben Kosiba ,showing the Temple with the Messianic star on the roof and the Ark of the Covenant inside (British Museum)
The following texts were written by two Greek and a Roman author. They are not very valuable sources, although the last one may give us the real cause of the revolt of Bar Kochba.
Babylonian Talmud, Gittin
Eusebius
Epiphanius
Cassius Dio
Jerome
Letters
Appian
Fronto
Appian, Syrian wars 8.50
The Jewish nation alone resisted, and Pompey conquered them, sent their king, Aristobulus, to Rome, and destroyed their greatest and to them holiest city Jerusalem, as tolemy, the first king of Egypt, had formerly done. It was afterward rebuilt and Vespasian destroyed it again, and Hadrian did the same in my time.[translation H.White]
Fronto, Letter to Marcus Aurelius
The god who begat the great Roman race has no compunction in suffering us to faint at times and be defeated and wounded. [...] But always and everywhere he turned our sorrows into successes and our terrors into triumphs. But not to hark back too far into ancient times, I will take instances from your own family. [...] Under the rule of your grandfather Hadrian, what a significant number of soldiers were killed by the Jews.[translation C.R. Haines]
The interesting aspect about this letter, that was written in 162, is
that it presents the war against Bar Kochba as a military defeat.