REFUSING HELLENIZATION A FIGHT TO THE DEATH Herod got himself rid of the Hasmonean dynasty by handing over Antigonus (a nephew of Hyrcanus II) to the Romans who killed him, putting his own wife Mariamne (a Hasmonean great granddaughter of Alexander Jannaeus) to death, drowned into a pool her brother Aristobulus, executed her own mother Alexandra and finally accused his two sons by her to conspire against him, tried them and had them strangled. As the Jewish historian Josephus said :"It is better to be a pig than Herod's son". On a religious level, he turned the kingdom into a secular state by executing as soon as 37 BC 46 leading members of the Sanhedrin who was guiulty in his view to have sought to uphold the Mosaic Law in secular matters. On a political basis, he modeled himself on Solomon and tried to transform the little kingdom of Judah into a rich, wealthy and influent region of the Roman empire albeit theorically independent. Under his reign the population of the nation grew to almost 7,000,000 Jews in the Roman empire plus the diaspora whose numbers are unknown but according to Josephus they were "myriad and myriads." He saw himself like a reformer, dragging the conservative Eastern people into modernity by destroying the rich oligarchy who exploited the poor Jews and looking beyond Jerusalem to the diaspora who saw him as their best friend. He backed the institutions of Greek culture, rescued the Olympic Games from decay, rebuilt the temple of Apollo in Rhodes, gave gymnasia to Tripoli and so on around the Roman empire. He rebuilt Samaria that John Hyrcanus had levelled to the ground, created the city of Caesarea on the coast where he set up a gigantic figure of Caesar. Then he provided Jerusalem with all the facilities of a modern Romano-Greek city, above all by rebuilding the Temple to a glory never reached so far. He assembled 10,000 men and 1,000 supervisory priests to do the job that took 46 years to complete. Craftsmen were still working on some decorations when the Romans tore down the whole building in 70 AD. These two catastrophes -70 AD and 135 AD- ended Jewish history in antiquity. It also marked the final separation of Judaism and Christianity in so far as the notion that Gentiles and Jews could both subscribe to Christianity as a sort of super religion was destroyed at the same time that the Temple and the old Christian-Jewish church. Most of his members had perished and the survivors had difficulty to maintain their faith as the main stream of Christianity. All the contrary Christianity became more and more hellenistic and antagonist to the Jews. The Jews had lost the combat against Hellenization but Judaism was going to impregnate the tenets of Christianity for ever. Who, of the two cultures had won in the end, it is hard to tell. But is suffices to read the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (37-100 AD) to understand why the Greek culture and the Jewish culture were irreconciable : "And truly I suppose it to be derived from the imperfect knowledge the Greek legislators had at first of the true nature of God; nor did they explain to the people even so far as they did comprehend of it: nor did they compose the other parts of their political settlements according to it, but omitted it as a thing of very little consequence, and gave leave both to the poets to introduce what gods they pleased, and those subject to all sorts of passions, and to the orators to procure political decrees from the people for the admission of such foreign gods as they thought proper." |
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After the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC, the Middle East
became a region of tensions and feud between his Generals : the lust for
conquest of Antigonus, the ruler of Phrygia, brought about a coalition of the
other Diadochi (or "successors" of Alexander) against him and, after a period
of hostilities in which the fortunes of war fluctuated, Antigonus finally met his
end at the decisive battle of Ipsus (Phrygia) in 301. Then the empire was
divided between Lysimachus, Cassander, Seleucus and Ptolemy.. But
nevertheless the Hellenization of the world had been set in motion and
nothing could stop it, except the determination of the most pious of the Jews
in Judah, the Pharisees and the Essenees. In 332 BC, Alexander had cracked
the Persian empire like an egg starting the first European invasion of Asia.
After his death, the civilization of the polis, the Greek city, spread out like
lava out of a volcano. The Greeks bred an endless surplus of population and
planted colonies everywhere : the Ptolemies in Egypt, the Seleucids in Syria,
the Attalids in Anatolia.
became a region of tensions and feud between his Generals : the lust for
conquest of Antigonus, the ruler of Phrygia, brought about a coalition of the
other Diadochi (or "successors" of Alexander) against him and, after a period
of hostilities in which the fortunes of war fluctuated, Antigonus finally met his
end at the decisive battle of Ipsus (Phrygia) in 301. Then the empire was
divided between Lysimachus, Cassander, Seleucus and Ptolemy.. But
nevertheless the Hellenization of the world had been set in motion and
nothing could stop it, except the determination of the most pious of the Jews
in Judah, the Pharisees and the Essenees. In 332 BC, Alexander had cracked
the Persian empire like an egg starting the first European invasion of Asia.
After his death, the civilization of the polis, the Greek city, spread out like
lava out of a volcano. The Greeks bred an endless surplus of population and
planted colonies everywhere : the Ptolemies in Egypt, the Seleucids in Syria,
the Attalids in Anatolia.
Furthermore they were fearless and skilled warriors but their wars
were not only conquest, they tend to promote Greek culture and
institutions : the stadium, the theatre, the odeum, the lyceum, the
agora. In their wake, the economy boomed and living standards rose.
People wanted to become Greek as Greek economics and culture
appealed strongly to the less sophisticated societes of the Middle East.
Thus Syria and Palestine became areas of intense Greek settlement
and of rapid Hellenization of their inhabitants. Very soon Jewish
Samaria and Judah were looked down as rural and backward. The
Jews reacted differently to this invasion : the fundamentalists retreated
in the desert with an idea to come back with the sword like the
Qumran community or peacefully with the word like Essenees ; at the
other extreme, there were KJews who learned Greek, hellenized their
name and thought that some good could be taken from this influence
as acquiring Greek culture was seen as a passport to first-class
citizenship. In between there were a large group of pious Jews who
adopted the Jeremiah's views that religion and piety flourished more
when pagans had to conduct the corrupting business of government.
They were the wise realistic ones.
were not only conquest, they tend to promote Greek culture and
institutions : the stadium, the theatre, the odeum, the lyceum, the
agora. In their wake, the economy boomed and living standards rose.
People wanted to become Greek as Greek economics and culture
appealed strongly to the less sophisticated societes of the Middle East.
Thus Syria and Palestine became areas of intense Greek settlement
and of rapid Hellenization of their inhabitants. Very soon Jewish
Samaria and Judah were looked down as rural and backward. The
Jews reacted differently to this invasion : the fundamentalists retreated
in the desert with an idea to come back with the sword like the
Qumran community or peacefully with the word like Essenees ; at the
other extreme, there were KJews who learned Greek, hellenized their
name and thought that some good could be taken from this influence
as acquiring Greek culture was seen as a passport to first-class
citizenship. In between there were a large group of pious Jews who
adopted the Jeremiah's views that religion and piety flourished more
when pagans had to conduct the corrupting business of government.
They were the wise realistic ones.
The Pharisees stood in the second and third categories while the
Sadducees in the first one : the logic of the Pharisees, they said, would
make the Book of Homer (Greek culture) prevail over the Book (Bible).
Any compromise was made impossible by the rise of a Jewish reform
party in Judah who aimed at forcing the path of Hellenization and
improve Judaism : in fact they wanted to marry the JEwish notion of the
universal God to the Greek notion of a unified world civilization. They
just wanted to deprovincialize the Scriptures and Judaism. It was a very
high ambition and very comprehensible. The problem was that the
Greeks were polytheists and not monotheists, so their goal was a
contradiction per se : the Jews drew an absolute distinction between
human and divine whereas the Greeks were Promothean. The clash of
two cultures could not be stronger and harder. Aristotle himself
proposed once to elevate to status of deity any man whose virtue could
not be challenged by any other human being. That was unacceptable
by the Jews.
In the second century BC the Seleucid monarch Antiochus
IV Epiphanes came to the rescue of the reformist Jews :
keen on speeding up the pace of Hellenization, he brought
full support to the Reformers. He appointed High Priest an
Hellenized Joshua, renamed for the sake of it Josias, who
transformed the Temple into a playing ground, decreted that
Jerusalem would be now Antiochia, diverted the Temple's
money into such pagan activities like games and dramatic
competitions. In 171, to add insult to injury Antiochus built
an acropolis-fortress dominating the temple and 4 years
later he abolished the Mosaic law and downgraded the
Temple into an ecumenical place of worship.
IV Epiphanes came to the rescue of the reformist Jews :
keen on speeding up the pace of Hellenization, he brought
full support to the Reformers. He appointed High Priest an
Hellenized Joshua, renamed for the sake of it Josias, who
transformed the Temple into a playing ground, decreted that
Jerusalem would be now Antiochia, diverted the Temple's
money into such pagan activities like games and dramatic
competitions. In 171, to add insult to injury Antiochus built
an acropolis-fortress dominating the temple and 4 years
later he abolished the Mosaic law and downgraded the
Temple into an ecumenical place of worship.
It was that was going to stay in history as
the famous "abomination of desolation". A
decision that is today attributed to a Jewish
Reformist, called Menelaus, who influenced
the Monarch in thinking that a final blow to
archaic Judaism could thus be brought.
The Reformists had on their side the poor
people of Jerusalem who had not been
taken in exile like the rich and the powerful
and who were despised by the likes of Ezra.
They have been imposed on the return of
the elite a religious rigour which they did
not care about. If the rigorists had lost and
the Law had been rationalized, they would
have benefit of it. But the problem was that
the reformers too were wealthy and
powerful people and they were unable to
appeal to that mass of uneducated and
suffering people. Their message could not
reach the poor and a great opportunity to
place Judaism on an universal basis was
missed.
the famous "abomination of desolation". A
decision that is today attributed to a Jewish
Reformist, called Menelaus, who influenced
the Monarch in thinking that a final blow to
archaic Judaism could thus be brought.
The Reformists had on their side the poor
people of Jerusalem who had not been
taken in exile like the rich and the powerful
and who were despised by the likes of Ezra.
They have been imposed on the return of
the elite a religious rigour which they did
not care about. If the rigorists had lost and
the Law had been rationalized, they would
have benefit of it. But the problem was that
the reformers too were wealthy and
powerful people and they were unable to
appeal to that mass of uneducated and
suffering people. Their message could not
reach the poor and a great opportunity to
place Judaism on an universal basis was
missed.
So the fight between the
clans began in earnest and a
Jewish reformist was
slaughtered by a member of
an old priestly family from the
Temple called Matthias
Hasmon. The man had 5
sons, led by Judas Hasmon,
called Judas the Maccabee
(the Hammer), who launched
a guerrilla against the
Seleucids and in 166-164 the
Jews defeated the Greek
general Apollonius and drove
all Greek elements out of
Jerusalem. After the death of
Antiochus the same year they
reinstated the Temple as the
unique place of worship. The
Hanukkah feast was then
created to celebrate this
happy event.
In 161 BC the Hasmons signed an alliance with Rome
and ten years later the Seleucids abandon their their
attempt to hellenize Judah by force ; in 142 BC Judah
was recognized as an independent state and Judah
Maccabee became ethnarch and ruler of the small
nation. The Hasmoneans were in favor of a deeply
reactionary spirit within Judaism, an attitude that helped
to rouse a ferocious mob of religious extremists swollen
by the rabble. The mob became a big part of the
Jerusalem scene making the small nation extremely
difficult to govern by anybody, Greeks, Romans and not
the least by the Jews themselves. So the secular spirit
and the intellectual freedom which flourished in the
Greek gymnasia and academies were banished from
Jewish centers of learning. This movement was very
important in the rise of rabbinate and the development
of an education rejecting any form of knowledge
outside the Torah.
Eventually the Sadducees who were the Temple
priests and for this reason the partisans of an even
stricter learning of the Torah became the most
active supporters of the Hasmoneans. The
Sanhedrin - a Committee of elders- discharged the
religious-legal duties of the system. Simon, the last
of the Maccabees' brothers, smashed to bits of
rubble the walls of the Greek citadel (the Acra)
which has been built to defy the Temple. After the
assassination of Simon, his third son John
Hyrcanus reigned from 134 - to 104 and was
convinced that it was God's will that he would
restore the kingdom of David. He thought that the
whole of Palestine was the divine inheritance of the
Jewish nation and that it was his right and duty to
conquer it. And he did it in the most brutal ways
possible : he smashed Samaria to pieces, burned
the Greek city of Scythopolis, he conquered the
province of Idumea and forced its inhabitants to
convert or die. In one word, he was a monster.
priests and for this reason the partisans of an even
stricter learning of the Torah became the most
active supporters of the Hasmoneans. The
Sanhedrin - a Committee of elders- discharged the
religious-legal duties of the system. Simon, the last
of the Maccabees' brothers, smashed to bits of
rubble the walls of the Greek citadel (the Acra)
which has been built to defy the Temple. After the
assassination of Simon, his third son John
Hyrcanus reigned from 134 - to 104 and was
convinced that it was God's will that he would
restore the kingdom of David. He thought that the
whole of Palestine was the divine inheritance of the
Jewish nation and that it was his right and duty to
conquer it. And he did it in the most brutal ways
possible : he smashed Samaria to pieces, burned
the Greek city of Scythopolis, he conquered the
province of Idumea and forced its inhabitants to
convert or die. In one word, he was a monster.
But it was still nothing : his son Alexander Jannaeus took his policies even further. He invaded
the Decapolis territory (ten Greek cities in the West), took the legendary Petra (Jordan), invaded
the North into Galilea and Syria, expanding the Jewish nation very rapidly and very brutally by
massacres and forced conversions. More he forgot where he came from and turned into some
sort of Greek admirer : when pious Jews pelted him with lemons to show their disapprobation, he
got into such a rage that he murdered 6000 of them, starting a terrible civil war that lasted 6 years
and cost 50,000 lives.
the Decapolis territory (ten Greek cities in the West), took the legendary Petra (Jordan), invaded
the North into Galilea and Syria, expanding the Jewish nation very rapidly and very brutally by
massacres and forced conversions. More he forgot where he came from and turned into some
sort of Greek admirer : when pious Jews pelted him with lemons to show their disapprobation, he
got into such a rage that he murdered 6000 of them, starting a terrible civil war that lasted 6 years
and cost 50,000 lives.
It is from those dramatic times that definitely rose a new class of Jewish citizens, the Perushim or
Pharisees (those who separated themselves) who rejected the aristocratic Sadducees and their
Sanhedrin and they had popular allies within the Jewish people. According to the Qumran scrolls,
Alexander Jannaeus took the lives of 800 hundred of them by crucifying them. At his death in
76BC, the Jewish kingdom was bitterly divided, Greek influence had receded but the Roman empire
was just below the Jewish horizon.
Pharisees (those who separated themselves) who rejected the aristocratic Sadducees and their
Sanhedrin and they had popular allies within the Jewish people. According to the Qumran scrolls,
Alexander Jannaeus took the lives of 800 hundred of them by crucifying them. At his death in
76BC, the Jewish kingdom was bitterly divided, Greek influence had receded but the Roman empire
was just below the Jewish horizon.
At the death of Alexander, his wife Salome had a more lenient policy toward
the Pharisees and tried to restore some order within the kingdom. But she
died ten years later and her sons tried to fight for power. One of the
claimants, Hyrcanus II had a chief-minster called Antipater, an hellenized
Idumean converted to Judaism by force. He thought that it would be in the
interest of the Jewish state to look for an arrangement with Rome and in 63 he
agreed that Judah became a Roman client-state. His son, the famous Herod,
firmly locked the Jews into the systems of the Roman empire.
the Pharisees and tried to restore some order within the kingdom. But she
died ten years later and her sons tried to fight for power. One of the
claimants, Hyrcanus II had a chief-minster called Antipater, an hellenized
Idumean converted to Judaism by force. He thought that it would be in the
interest of the Jewish state to look for an arrangement with Rome and in 63 he
agreed that Judah became a Roman client-state. His son, the famous Herod,
firmly locked the Jews into the systems of the Roman empire.
Herod reigned from 37 BC to 4 BC was a brilliant politican, he was
compared to French Talleyrand but he was too an oriental despote,
a barbarian capable of the worst cruelties but also a great
administrator, a efficient entrepreneur and builder. He made a
name for himself during his father's reign as Governor of Galilee, a
ruthless administrator who put to death any form of opposition, men
like Hezekiah, Malichus, all Jewish fanatics. In 40, he went to Rome
and asked for the protection of the Senate that made him "rex
socius et amicus populi" (allied king and friend of the Roman
people). He marched back to Jerusalem with an army of 66,000
men and cavalry and became the most loyal and efficient ally of
Rome in Palestine.
compared to French Talleyrand but he was too an oriental despote,
a barbarian capable of the worst cruelties but also a great
administrator, a efficient entrepreneur and builder. He made a
name for himself during his father's reign as Governor of Galilee, a
ruthless administrator who put to death any form of opposition, men
like Hezekiah, Malichus, all Jewish fanatics. In 40, he went to Rome
and asked for the protection of the Senate that made him "rex
socius et amicus populi" (allied king and friend of the Roman
people). He marched back to Jerusalem with an army of 66,000
men and cavalry and became the most loyal and efficient ally of
Rome in Palestine.
When he died in 4 BC, Jesus Christ
was 2 years old and his sons were no
good and were quickly disposed of by
the Romans ; in 6 AD, Judah was
directly governed by Roman
procurators from Caesarea. His
grandson Herod Agrippa was judged
capable by the Romans and in 37 AD
they gave him back Judah but he died
in 44 AD and Rome imposed direct
rule again. Followed then a period of
great tensions. At the time of the
Procurator Felix (52-60 AD), there
was a gathering of 4,000 people on
the Mount of Olives in the expectation
that the walls of Jerusalem would fall,
like Jericho's. Finally there were the
great upheavals of 66 and 135 AD
which were of an enormous scale and
convulsed the eastern Roman empire.
There is no parallel in the events
occuring in any other territory Rome
ruled.
was 2 years old and his sons were no
good and were quickly disposed of by
the Romans ; in 6 AD, Judah was
directly governed by Roman
procurators from Caesarea. His
grandson Herod Agrippa was judged
capable by the Romans and in 37 AD
they gave him back Judah but he died
in 44 AD and Rome imposed direct
rule again. Followed then a period of
great tensions. At the time of the
Procurator Felix (52-60 AD), there
was a gathering of 4,000 people on
the Mount of Olives in the expectation
that the walls of Jerusalem would fall,
like Jericho's. Finally there were the
great upheavals of 66 and 135 AD
which were of an enormous scale and
convulsed the eastern Roman empire.
There is no parallel in the events
occuring in any other territory Rome
ruled.
Why were the Jews so restless to Greek and Roman domination ? They were
probably too advanced, too intellectually conscious to find alien rule acceptable. If
they could not match the Greeks artistically, their literature was superior in many
ways : as the Greeks held ancient Jewish literature in contempt and as many Jews
showed some form of attraction to Greek culture, there was contant tensions
between both cultures. On top of this, Jews and Greks had many things in common
which was an additional source of conflicts : rationalism, empiricism, consciousness
of a divine ordering of the cosmos, feeling for ethics, constant interest in man
himself... but in spite of all thos mutual traits, misunderstandings prived more
important.
probably too advanced, too intellectually conscious to find alien rule acceptable. If
they could not match the Greeks artistically, their literature was superior in many
ways : as the Greeks held ancient Jewish literature in contempt and as many Jews
showed some form of attraction to Greek culture, there was contant tensions
between both cultures. On top of this, Jews and Greks had many things in common
which was an additional source of conflicts : rationalism, empiricism, consciousness
of a divine ordering of the cosmos, feeling for ethics, constant interest in man
himself... but in spite of all thos mutual traits, misunderstandings prived more
important.
In the end, when the Jews were rejecting Roman domination, they
were actually saying no to Greek culture. The second book of the
Maccabees is nothing but a pamphlet against Greek culture and
literature and one can not forget that for the Jews the abomination
of desolation is nothing else than the figure of Zeus being forced
into their holy Temple, in the Holy of Holies. The Book of Daniel,
dating from Hasmonean times, whipped up hatred against pagan
imperialism in general, and Greek rule in particular. The Book
vibrates with xenophobia and invitations to martyrdom.
were actually saying no to Greek culture. The second book of the
Maccabees is nothing but a pamphlet against Greek culture and
literature and one can not forget that for the Jews the abomination
of desolation is nothing else than the figure of Zeus being forced
into their holy Temple, in the Holy of Holies. The Book of Daniel,
dating from Hasmonean times, whipped up hatred against pagan
imperialism in general, and Greek rule in particular. The Book
vibrates with xenophobia and invitations to martyrdom.
Finally there was a class divide : in
the Roman empire, the elite was
hellenized whereas the Jews in
Palestine were largely second-class
citizens except for those of them who
accepted Hellenization but they were a
minority. The middle-class and the
farmers were hopelessly in debt and in
the towns the atmosphere between the
Hellenized population and the Jews
was very tense. In 66 AD, a revolt
started in Caesarea about a
Graeco-Jewish lawsuit which the
Greeks won : they celebrated with a
pogrom in the Jewish quarter of the
city while the Roman garrison did
nothing. The upheval spread to
Jerusalem where an angry mob
attacked after many incidents the
Roman garrison and massacred it.
The mob also burned the Temple
archives so that all records of debts
would be destroyed : the fight against
Hellenization was also a civil war
between the poor Jews and the rich
ones who were more hellenized.
Unfortunately there is no credible records of the events of the
great revolt of 66 AD. All we know is that after the massacre the
Roman legate in Syria, a certain Gallus, was unable to take
Jerusalem. While withdrawing he was defeated at Beth-horon and
lost almost an entire legion, about 6,000 professional soldiers, at
the hands of Eleazar ben Simon. During his retreat he was closely
pursued and surrounded in a ravine, and only succeeded in
making good his escape to Antioch by sacrificing the greater part
of his army and a large amount of war material.
great revolt of 66 AD. All we know is that after the massacre the
Roman legate in Syria, a certain Gallus, was unable to take
Jerusalem. While withdrawing he was defeated at Beth-horon and
lost almost an entire legion, about 6,000 professional soldiers, at
the hands of Eleazar ben Simon. During his retreat he was closely
pursued and surrounded in a ravine, and only succeeded in
making good his escape to Antioch by sacrificing the greater part
of his army and a large amount of war material.
Soon after his return Gallus died and emperor Nero appointed
General Titus Flavius Vespasian, the future Emperor, instead to crush
the rebellion. He took his time, cleared the coast, secured his
communications, reduced fortresses held by the Jews and settled the
countryside. Then he struck. In 69 he was proclaimed emperor and
he left his son Titus, 29 years old, to finish the dirty job. The final
capture of Jerusalem lasted less than 6 months and in September 70
As, the city fell : Titus had 60,000 men and the most modern
equipment. The defenders had about 25,000 men divided between
three groups led by Eleazar ben Simon and his Zealots, Simeon ben
Giora and his Sicarii, John of Giscala and his Idumeans. After five
months of siege, the Roman legions stormed the Temple which was
burned, then Herod's citadel. After the fall of Jerusalem, only three
Jewish centers of resistance remained : Herodium which fell soon,
Machaerus taken in 72, and Masada, Herod's fortress, which was
taken too in 72 AD.
General Titus Flavius Vespasian, the future Emperor, instead to crush
the rebellion. He took his time, cleared the coast, secured his
communications, reduced fortresses held by the Jews and settled the
countryside. Then he struck. In 69 he was proclaimed emperor and
he left his son Titus, 29 years old, to finish the dirty job. The final
capture of Jerusalem lasted less than 6 months and in September 70
As, the city fell : Titus had 60,000 men and the most modern
equipment. The defenders had about 25,000 men divided between
three groups led by Eleazar ben Simon and his Zealots, Simeon ben
Giora and his Sicarii, John of Giscala and his Idumeans. After five
months of siege, the Roman legions stormed the Temple which was
burned, then Herod's citadel. After the fall of Jerusalem, only three
Jewish centers of resistance remained : Herodium which fell soon,
Machaerus taken in 72, and Masada, Herod's fortress, which was
taken too in 72 AD.
The roman vengeance was terrible and
awe-inspiring : 45 forts where the rebels had resisted
were destroyed, as well as 985 cities and villages.
Compared to it, the vengeance of the Nazis in 1942
after the assassination of Heydrich in Czechoslovakia
looked pale. According to the roman historian Dio
Cassius, 580,000 Jews died in the process of it and
later Saint Jerome (IVth century AD) reported that
"the price of Jewish slaves dropped to less than a
horse." Hadrian always resentful completed his
plan to transform Jerusalem into a Greek polis and
named the new city Aelia Capitolina. At any rate,
Jews contrived to visit a section of the ruins, now
known as the Wailing Walls (picture to the left).
awe-inspiring : 45 forts where the rebels had resisted
were destroyed, as well as 985 cities and villages.
Compared to it, the vengeance of the Nazis in 1942
after the assassination of Heydrich in Czechoslovakia
looked pale. According to the roman historian Dio
Cassius, 580,000 Jews died in the process of it and
later Saint Jerome (IVth century AD) reported that
"the price of Jewish slaves dropped to less than a
horse." Hadrian always resentful completed his
plan to transform Jerusalem into a Greek polis and
named the new city Aelia Capitolina. At any rate,
Jews contrived to visit a section of the ruins, now
known as the Wailing Walls (picture to the left).
| The interior view of the Holy of Holies according to 1 Kings 6:23 |
Jerusalem was left a ruined city by the siege, its temple destroyed, his walls
nothing but rubble. Anti-semitic sentiment continued to spread, the fall of
HJerusalem was given as evidence that the Jews were hated and deserted
by their own God. An anti-semitic propaganda began to appear everywhere
in the roman empire. The last Jewish risings were precipitated by emperor
Hadrian who hated the Jews : he forbid circumcision on pain of death and
he planned to create a pagan polis in the ruins of Jerusalem with a temple
dedicated to Jupiter on Temple Mount. After his departure from the East in
132, Jewish struck back and followed four years of hell for the Roman
legions. Hadrian had to bring back legions from England and the Danube :
finally in 135 the Jews under the leadership of Simon bar Kokhba -who
called himself the Messiah- had to stop their revolt and their final
stronghold Betar gave up.
nothing but rubble. Anti-semitic sentiment continued to spread, the fall of
HJerusalem was given as evidence that the Jews were hated and deserted
by their own God. An anti-semitic propaganda began to appear everywhere
in the roman empire. The last Jewish risings were precipitated by emperor
Hadrian who hated the Jews : he forbid circumcision on pain of death and
he planned to create a pagan polis in the ruins of Jerusalem with a temple
dedicated to Jupiter on Temple Mount. After his departure from the East in
132, Jewish struck back and followed four years of hell for the Roman
legions. Hadrian had to bring back legions from England and the Danube :
finally in 135 the Jews under the leadership of Simon bar Kokhba -who
called himself the Messiah- had to stop their revolt and their final
stronghold Betar gave up.
| Emperor Hadrian (76-138) became in the end the worst enemy of the Jews |
| Caesarea was originally called Straton's Tower after its founder Straton, who is believed to have been a ruler of Sidon in the 4th century BCE. In 96 BCE the city was captured by Alexander Yannai and remained in the Hasmonean kingdom until it became an autonomous city by Pompey. After being for some time in the possession of Cleopatra, ruler of Egypt, it was returned by Augustus to Herod. Once the site of a Phoenician port, over the course of 12 years Herod built Caesarea into the grandest city other than Jerusalem in Palestine, with a deep sea harbor (called Sebastos, i.e., Augustus in Greek), aqueduct, hippodrome and magnificent amphitheater that remain standing today |
| Under the procuratorship of Felix, a number of `prophets' lead followers into the desert. To prevent these movements from fomenting insurrection, Felix had many executed. |
| Emperor Vespasian dealt a terrible blow to the Jews in 69-70 AD |
| Attalus I |
| Antiochus IV Epiphanes also called the Madman by the Jews |
| Tombs of King Antiochus Iv on Mt. Nimrod, Nemrut Dagi, Adiyaman, Turkey |
| Judah under Judas Maccabee |
| John Hyrcanus conquered most of Palestine |
| The ten cities (in black) members of the Decapolis that were taken by the Hasmoneans |
| Judah under Herod the Great |
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| Copper coin dating back to John Hyrcanus |
