Aelia Capitolina (Jerusalem) Israel Israel

The Roman general Publius Ventidius Bassus between 39 BCE–38 BCE defeats the Parthian army, sending troops under the command of Poppaedius Silo to await the arrival of Herod, who the Roman Senate, with the approval of Octavian and Mark Antony, had appointed client king of Judaea.

Josephus puts this in the year of the consulship of Calvinus and Pollio (40 BCE), but Appian places it in 39 BCE.

Emperor Hadrian (117-38) endeavors to establish cultural uniformity and issues several repressive edicts, including one against circumcision.

The edicts spark the Bar-Kochba Rebellion of 132-35, which is crushed by the Romans.

Hadrian closes the Academy at Yibna, and prohibits both the study of the Torah and the observance of the Jewish way of life derived from it.

Judah is included in Syria Palestina, Jerusalem is renamed Aelia Capitolina, and Jews are forbidden to come within sight of the city.

Once a year on the anniversary of the destruction of the Temple, controlled entry is permitted, allowing Jews to mourn at a remaining fragment on the Temple site, the Western Wall, which becomes known as the Wailing Wall.

Hadrian romanizes the city of Jerusalem, renaming it Aelia Capitolina (after his first name, Aelius), and bans the Jews from entering it on pain of death, except for one day each year.

These anti-Jewish measures, which affect also Jewish Christians, is taken to ensure 'the complete and permanent secularization of Jerusalem.' (E. Mary Smallwood, The Jews under Roman rule: from Pompey to Diocletian: a study in political relations; BRILL, 1981 p.460.)

According to Eusebius, the Jerusalem church was scattered twice, in CE 70 and CE 135, with the difference that from 70-130 the bishops of Jerusalem have evidently Jewish names, whereas after 135 the bishops of Aelia Capitolina appear to be Greeks.

Hadrian places the city's main Forum, as is standard for new Roman cities, at the junction of the main cardo and decumanus, now the location for the (smaller) Muristan.

Adjacent to the Forum, at the junction of the same cardo, and the other decumanus, Hadrian builds a large temple to the goddess Venus, which will later become the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

Several boundary walls of Hadrian's temple, despite eleventh-century destruction, which will result in the modern Church having a much smaller footprint, have been found among the archaeological remains beneath the Church.

The city is without walls, protected by a light garrison of the Tenth Legion.

The detachment at Jerusalem, which apparently encamps all over the city’s western hill, is responsible for preventing Jews from returning to the city.

The enforcement of the ban on Jews entering Aelia Capitolina will continue until the fourth century CE.

Hadrian has made observance of basic Jewish practices a capital crime, banished Jews from Jerusalem, allowed the city to be renamed Aelia Capitolina (after his clan name, Aelius) and erected his planned temple to Jupiter on the ruins of Solomon's Temple.

He converts Jerusalem into a Greco-Roman city, with a circus, an amphitheater, baths, and a theater and with streets conforming to the Roman grid pattern.

To repopulate the city, Hadrian apparently brings in Greco-Syrians from the surrounding areas and even perhaps some legionary veterans.

Jews are forbidden to come within sight of the city.

The Diaspora, which had begun with the Babylonian captivity in the sixth century BCE and which had resumed early in the Hellenistic period, now involves most Jews in an exodus from what they continue to view as the land promised to them as the descendants of Abraham.

Rome states that Judaism must be tolerated, although will not be recognized as an official religion.

Antoninus, to restore peace between the Jews and Romans, repeals most of Hadrian's harsher policies concerning Jews and their religious practice, relegalizing circumcision for Jews.

The prohibition against Jews in Jerusalem and its districts apparently is relaxed to permit Jews to enter Jerusalem on one day a year, a Day of Mourning.

Controlled entry is permitted once a year on the anniversary of the destruction of the Temple, allowing Jews to mourn at a remaining fragment on the Temple site, the Western Wall, which becomes known as the Wailing Wall.

Constantine's conversion to Christianity brings a new era of prosperity to Palestine, which attracts a flood of pilgrims from all over the empire.

As a geographic unit, Palestine extends from the Mediterranean on the west to the Arabian Desert on the east and from the lower Litani River in the north to the Gaza Valley in the south.

Named after the Philistines, who occupied the southern coastal region in the twelfth century BCE, the name Philistia was used in the second century CE to designate Syria Palestina, which formed the southern third of the Roman province of Syria.

…withdrawing to Apamea, but changes his mind in Palestine, proclaiming himself emperor in late 280.

Saturninus is killed by his own troops before Probus can respond to the threat.

Palestine passes under eastern control upon partition of the Roman Empire in 395.

The scholarly Jewish communities in Galilee continue with varying fortunes under Constantinople's  rule and dominant Christian influence until the Arab-Muslim conquest of 638.

The period includes, however, strong Jewish support of the briefly successful Persian invasion of 610-14.

The Arab caliph, Umar, designates Jerusalem as the third holiest place in Islam, second only to Mecca and Medina.