6. Of Jerusalem itself we find no notice of consequence in the next period till it was taken by Pompcy (q. v.) in the summer of B.C. G3, and on the very day observed by the Jews as one of lamentation and fasting, in com- memoration of the conquest of Jerusalem by Nebuchad- nezzar. Twelve thousand Jews were massacred in the Temple courts, including many priests, who died at the very altar rather than suspend the sacred rites (Joseph. A nt. xiv, 1-4). On this occasion, Pompcy, attended by his generals, went into the Temple and viewed the sanc- tuary ; but he left untouched all its treasures and sacred things, while the walls of the city itself were demolish- ed. From this time the Jews are to be considered as luider the dominion of the Romans (Joseph, ^j^f. xiv, 4, 5). The treasures which Pompey had spared were seized a few years after (B.C. 61) by Crassus. In the year B.C. 43, the walls of tlie city, \vhich Pompey had demolished, were rebuilt by Antipater, the father of that Herod the Great under whom Jerusalem was destined to assume the new and more magnificent aspect which it bore in the time of Christ, and which constituted the Jerusalem which Josephus describes. See Herod. Un- der the following reign the city was improved with mag- nificent taste and profuse expenditure; and even the Temple, which always formed the great architectural glory of Jerusalem, Avas taken down and rebuilt by Herod the Great, -with a splendor exceeding that of Sol- omon's (Mark xiii, 1 ; John ii, 20). See Temple. It was in the courts of the Temple as thus rebuilt, and in the streets of the city as thus improved, that the Sav- iour of men walked up and doMn. Here he taught, here he wrought miracles, here he suffered ; and this was the Temple whose " goodly stones" the apostle ad- mired (!Mark xiii, 1), and of which he foretold that ere the existing generation had passed away not one stone should be left upon another. Nor was the city in this state admired by Jews only. Pliny calls it " longe cla- rissimam urbium orieutis, non Judjese modo" {/list. Xat. V, 16).
Jerusalem seems to have been raised to this greatness as if to enhance the misery of its overthrow. As soon as tlie Jews had set the seal to their formal rejection of Christ by putting him to death, and invoking the re- sponsibility of his blood upon the heads of themselves and of their children (Matt, xxvii, 25\ its doom went forth. After having been the scene of liorrors without example, during a memorable siege, the process of vhich is narrated by .Josephus in full detail, it was, in A.D. 70, captiu-ed to the Romans, who razed the city and Temple to the ground, leaving only three of the towers and a part of the western wall to show how strong a place the Roman arms had overthrown (Joseph. War, vii, 1, 1). Since then the holy city has lain at the mercy of the Gentiles, and will so remain " until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled."
The destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans did not cause the site to be utteriy forsaken, Titus (q. v.) left there in garrison the whole of the tenth legion, besides several squailrons of cavalry and cohorts of foot. For these troo])s, and for those wlio ministered to their wants, there must have been dwellings ; and there is no reason to suppose that such Jews or Christians as a|)- peared to have taken no jiart in the war were forbidden to make their abode among the ruins, and building them up so far as their necessities might require. But noth- ing like a restoration of the city could have arisen from this, as it was not likely that any but poor people, Avho found an iuterest in supjjlying the wants of the garrison, were likely to resort to the ruins under such circumstan- ces. However, we learn from Jerome that for fifty years after its destruction, until the time of Hadrian, there still existed remnants of the city. But during all this period there is no mention of it in liistory.
Up to A.D. 131 the Jews remained tolerably quiet, although apparently awaiting any favorable opportuni- ty of shaking off the Roman yoke. The then emperor, Hacbrian (q. v.), seems to have been aware of this state' of feeling, and, among other measures of precaution, or- dered Jerusalem to be rebuilt as a fortified place where- with to keep in check the whole Jewish population. The works had made some progress when the Jews, un- able to endure the idea that their holy city shoidd be occupied by foreigners, and that strange gods should be set up within it, broke out into open rebellion under the notorious Barchochebas (q. v.), who claimed to be the Messiah. His success Avas at first very great, but he was crushed before the tremendous power of the Ro- mans, so soon as it could be brought to bear upon him ; and a war scarcely inferior in horror to that under Ves- pasian and Titus was, like it, brought to a close by the capture of Jerusalem, of which the Jews had obtained possession. This was in A.D. 13.5, from which period the final dispersion of the Jews has often been dated. The Romans then finished the city according to their first intention. It was made a Roman colony, inhabited wholly by foreigners, the Jews being forbidden to ap- jjroach it on pain of death : a temple to Jupiter Capito- linus was erected on IMount Moriah, and the old name of Jerusalem was sought to be supplanted by that of yElia Cajntoiina, conferred upon it in honor of the em- peror tEUus Hadrianus and Jupiter Capitolinus. By this name was the city known tiU the time of Constan- tine, when that of Jerusalem again became current, although ^Ua was still its public designation, and re- mained such so late as A.D. 536, when it appears in the acts of a STOod held there. This name even passed to the Mohammedans, by \vhom it was long retained ; and it was not till after they recovered the city from the Crusaders that it became generally known among th*m by the name of £l-Khuds — "the holy" — which it still bears.