They destroyed the Great Temple, the center of the Jewish religion. In A.D. 70, Roman troops retook Jerusalem from Jewish rebels, destroyed the Great Temple, and razed the city. Hundreds of thousands died in the slaughter. About 1,000 Zealots escaped to a fort, called Masada, on a mountaintop in the desert.
Although Judaea was ruled by the Romans, the governors there had practiced the same kind of religious tolerance as was shown to Jews in Rome [expert]. However, Roman tactlessness and inefficiency, along with famine and internal squabbles, led to a rise in Jewish discontent.
The Romans encircled the city with a wall to cut off supplies to the city completely and thereby drive the Jews to starvation. By August 70 ce the Romans had breached the final defenses and massacred much of the remaining population. They also destroyed the Second Temple.
They destroyed the Great Temple, the center of the Jewish religion. In A.D. 70, Roman troops retook Jerusalem from Jewish rebels, destroyed the Great Temple, and razed the city. Hundreds of thousands died in the slaughter. About 1,000 Zealots escaped to a fort, called Masada, on a mountaintop in the desert.
Philo says that the Jews of Rome were mostly slaves who had become Roman citizens after manumission. This seems to be fairly close to the truth. Jews may have reached Rome as early as the middle of the second century B.C.E.
The Jews in the diaspora were generally accepted into the Roman Empire, but with the rise of Christianity, restrictions grew.
The Jewish–Roman wars were a series of large-scale revolts by the Jews of the Eastern Mediterranean against the Roman Empire between 66 and 135 CE.
Jews rioted when Nero's appointed governor, Florus, seized large amounts of silver from the Temple. According to Josephus, the two main causes of the revolt were the cruelty and corruption of the Roman leaders, and Jewish religious nationalism with the aim of freeing the Holy Land from earthly powers.
Jesus was just one of the estimated 250,000 Jews crucified by the Romans.
In 70 AD, the Romans destroyed the temple in Jerusalem and looted its sacred contents. With the revolt over for good, huge numbers of Jews left Judaea to make a home elsewhere.
Jewish life in the city of Rome
Julius Caesar, the Roman dictator, was very friendly to Jews not only in Judea but also to those living in Rome. He introduced many amenities for them, which Augustus maintained. They allowed the Jews to freely profess their religion and cultivate their traditions.
There is no doubt that marriage between cousins was not only legal but also carried no social stigma in Roman society of the late Republic and early empire.
There were at least two expulsions of Jews from Rome before the reign of the Roman emperor Claudius. In 139 BC the Jews were expelled after being accused of missionary efforts. Then in AD 19 Tiberius once again expelled Jews from the city for similar reasons.
Under the Romans, kissing became more widespread. The Romans kissed their partners or lovers, family and friends, and rulers. They distinguished a kiss on the hand or cheek (osculum) from a kiss on the lips (basium) and a deep or passionate kiss (savolium).
Crucified Jewish rebels
Pagan Rome's occupation of that area lasted for roughly 400 years followed by Christian Rome's and then Constantinople's occupation for 300 years. The first 100 years from Pompey's conquest in 63 BCE to the end of Pontius Pilate's governorship in 36 CE were terrible.
In 129 CE, Emperor Hadrian decided to rebuild Jerusalem and therein establish a Roman colony named Aelia Capitolina. This decision led to the last major revolt by the Jews against Rome, also known as the Bar Kohba Revolt which took place between 132 and 135.
In the fall of ad 66 the Jews combined in revolt, expelled the Romans from Jerusalem, and overwhelmed in the pass of Beth-Horon a Roman punitive force under Gallus, the imperial legate in Syria. A revolutionary government was then set up and extended its influence throughout the whole country.
According to the Gospels, Jesus of Nazareth preached and was executed during the reign of Tiberius, by the authority of Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judaea province.
Christians were blamed for the desperate situation because they denied the gods who were thought to protect Rome, thereby bringing down their wrath. To regain divine protection, the emperors introduced the systematic persecution of Christians throughout the empire.
After the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 BCE, the Jews of the Kingdom of Judea went into exile. In 538 BCE during the reign of Cyrus the Great, the Jews returned to Jerusalem and were able to build the Second Temple on the site of the original one that had been destroyed.
On Tisha B'Av, 25 August 587 BCE or 18 July 586 BCE, the Babylonians took Jerusalem, destroyed the First Temple and burned down the city. The small settlements surrounding the city, and those close to the western border of the kingdom, were destroyed as well.
Aelia Capitolina was the Roman name given to Jerusalem in the 2nd century, after the destruction of the Second Temple.
After the defeat of Bar Kokhba (132–135 CE) the Roman Emperor Hadrian was determined to wipe out the identity of Israel-Judah-Judea, and renamed it Syria Palaestina. Until that time the area had been called the "province of Judea" (Roman Judea) by the Romans.
One son, Herod Antipas, took the northern territories of the Galilee and those on the east side of the Jordan River.