Rabbi Yehudah b. Bava

R. Yehudah b. Bava was an important scholar who lived at the same time as R. Akiva. He was so exceptional in his piety, that when the Talmud mentions a certain pious man, the reference is almost always to him. He defied the persecutory Roman laws by ordaining students in a hidden location in the mountains. Caught in this act, he was killed by the Romans.