About Jewishness

1st century BCE

63 BCE The Romans intervene in a civil war in Judea, which becomes a Roman province
Rome's involvement in the area dated from 63 BCE, following the end of the Third Mithridatic War, when Rome made Syria a province. After the defeat of Mithridates VI of Pontus, general Pompeius Magnus (Pompey the Great) remained to secure the area.

40 BCE-4 BCE Herod the Great, appointed King of the Jews by the Roman Senate
During the 1st century BCE, the Herodian Kingdom was established as a client kingdom and then later in the first century CE parts became a province of the Roman Empire. Herod was described as "a madman who murdered his own family and a great many rabbis." He is also known for his colossal building projects in Jerusalem and other parts of the ancient world, including the rebuilding of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, sometimes referred to as Herod's Temple. His son Herod Antipas, who continued the Herodian dynasty, was ruler of Galilee (4 BC - 39 AD) during the time of John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth.

1st century

1 CE Following the 1st century Great Revolt and the 2nd century Bar Kokhba revolt, the destruction of Judea exerted a decisive influence upon the dispersion of the Jewish people throughout the world, as the centre of worship shifted from the Temple to Rabbinic authority.
Some Jews were sold as slaves or transported as captives after the fall of Judea, others joined the existing diaspora, while still others remained in Judea and began work on the Jerusalem Talmud. For those Jews in the diaspora, they were generally accepted into the Roman Empire, but with the rise of Christianity, restrictions grew. Forced expulsions and persecution resulted in substantial shifts in the international centers of Jewish life to which far-flung communities often looked; although not always unified due to the Jewish people's dispersion itself. Jewish communities were thereby largely expelled from and sent to various Roman provinces in the Middle East, Europe and North Africa.

6 CE Census of Quirinius
The "Census of Quirinius" refers to the enrollment of the Roman Provinces of Syria and Iudaea for tax purposes taken in 6/7CE during the reign of the Roman Emperor Augustus, when Publius Sulpicius Quirinius was appointed governor of Syria, after the banishment of Herod Archelaus and the imposition of direct Roman rule on what became Iudaea Province (the conglomeration of Samaria, Judea proper, and Idumea). Quirinius, a Roman senator, saw to it that an equestrian assistant named Coponius was assigned as the first governor (Prefect) of the newly-created Iudaea Province. These governors were assigned to conduct a tax census for the Emperor in Syria and Iudaea. The Jewish historian Josephus links this census in Iudaea to an uprising under Judas of Galilee. Probably the imposition of taxation associated with it was the main cause, although religious objections to numbering the people of Israel may well have played a part. Josephus did not imply that they had much immediate success, but he regarded their actions as the beginning of a Zealot movement that encouraged armed resistance to the Roman empire, culminating eventually in the First Jewish-Roman War. The leaders of the uprising claimed that the census and taxation associated with it were tantamount to slavery.

30-70 CE Schism within Judaism during the Second Temple era. A sect within Hellenised Jewish society starts Jewish Christianity
The decline of Hellenistic Judaism is obscure. It may be that it was marginalized by, absorbed into or became Early Christianity. At first, the Christian church was centered in Jerusalem, in an "upper room" perhaps where the Cenacle is today, and leaders included James, Peter, and John. Following the Great Commission, the missionary activity of the Apostles, including Paul of Tarsus who claimed the title of "Apostle to the Gentiles", spread Christianity to cities throughout the Hellenistic world, such as Alexandria and Antioch, and also to Rome and even beyond the Roman Empire.

66-70 The Great Jewish Revolt against Roman occupation ended with destruction of the Second Temple and the fall of Jerusalem
The first Jewish-Roman War began in the year 66 in Caesaria initially because of Greek and Jewish religious tensions but grew with anti-taxation protests and attacks upon Roman citizens. The revolt was provoked by Greeks sacrificing birds in front of a local synagogue. The Roman garrison did not intercede and the long-standing Greek and Jewish religious tensions took a downward spiral. In reaction, the son of Kohen Gadol (High priest) Eliezar ben Hanania ceased prayers and sacrifices for the Roman Emperor at the Temple. Protests over taxation joined the list of grievances and random attacks on Roman citizens and perceived 'traitors' occurred in Jerusalem. Fearing the worst, the pro-Roman king Agrippa II and his sister Berenice fled Jerusalem to Galilee. Cestius Gallus, the legate of Syria, brought a legion, the XII Fulminata, and auxiliary troops as reinforcements to restore order. They were defeated in an ambush at the Battle of Beth Horon, a result that shocked the Roman leadership.
Emperor Nero appointed general Vespasian instead of Gallus to crush the rebellion. Vespasian, along with legions X Fretensis and V Macedonica, landed at Ptolemais in April 67. There he was joined by his son Titus, who arrived from Alexandria at the head of Legio XV Apollinaris, as well as by the armies of various local allies including that of king Agrippa II. Fielding more than 60,000 soldiers, Vespasian began operations by subjugating the Galilee. Many towns gave up without a fight, although others had to be taken by force. Of these, Josephus provides detailed accounts of the sieges of Yodfat and Gamla. By the year 68, Jewish resistance in the North had been crushed, and Vespasian made Caesarea Maritima his headquarters and proceeded to methodically clear the coast.
The leaders of the collapsed Northern revolt, John of Giscala and Simon Bar Giora, managed to escape to Jerusalem. Brutal civil war erupted, the Zealots and the fanatical Sicarii executed anyone advocating surrender, and by 68 the entire leadership of the southern revolt was dead, killed by Jewish hands in the infighting, some at the Zealot Temple Siege.
The siege of Jerusalem, the capital city, had begun early in the war, but had turned into a stalemate. Unable to breach the city's defenses, the Roman armies established a permanent camp just outside the city, digging a trench around the circumference of its walls and building a wall as high as the city walls themselves around Jerusalem. Anyone caught in the trench attempting to flee the city would be captured, crucified, and placed in lines on top of the dirt wall facing into Jerusalem. The two Zealot leaders, John of Gischala and Simon bar Giora, only ceased hostilities and joined forces to defend the city when the Romans began to construct ramparts for the siege. Those attempting to escape the city were crucified, with as many as five hundred crucifixions occurring in a day.
Titus Flavius, Vespasian's son, led the final assault and siege of Jerusalem. During the infighting inside the city walls, a stockpiled supply of dry food was intentionally burned by Jewish leaders to induce the defenders to fight against the siege instead of negotiating peace; as a result many city dwellers and soldiers died of starvation during the siege. Zealots under Eleazar ben Simon held the Temple, Sicarii led by Simon bar Giora held the upper city. Titus eventually wiped out the last remnants of Jewish resistance.
By the summer of 70, the Romans had breached the walls of Jerusalem, ransacking and burning nearly the entire city. The Romans began by attacking the weakest spot which was the third wall. It was built shortly before the siege so it did not have as much time invested in its protection. They succeeded towards the end of May and shortly afterwards broke through the more important second wall. The Second Temple (the rennovated Herod's Temple) was destroyed on 29 or 30 July 70.

73 Final events of the Great Jewish Revolt - the fall of Masada
During the spring of 71, Titus set sail for Rome. A new military governor was then appointed from Rome, Lucilius Bassus, whose assigned task was to undertake the "mopping-up" operations in Judaea. He used X Fretensis to besiege and capture the few remaining fortresses that still resisted. Bassus took Herodium, and then crossed the Jordan to capture the fortress of Machaerus on the shore of the Dead Sea. Because of illness, Bassus did not live to complete his mission. Lucius Flavius Silva replaced him, and moved against the last Jewish stronghold, Masada, in the autumn of 72. He used Legio X, auxiliary troops, and thousands of Jewish prisoners, for a total of 10,000 soldiers. After his orders for surrender were rejected, Silva established several base camps and circumvallated the fortress. According to Josephus, when the Romans finally broke through the walls of this citadel in 73, they discovered that the 967 defenders had all committed suicide, preferring death over defeat. The defeat of the Jewish revolt altered the Jewish diaspora, as many of the Jewish rebels were scattered or sold into slavery.

2nd century

115-117 Kitos War (Revolt against Trajan) was a second Jewish-Roman War initiated in large Jewish communities of Cyprus, Cyrene (modern Libya), Aegipta (modern Egypt) and Mesopotamia (modern Syria and Iraq). It led to mutual killing of hundreds of thousands Jews, Greeks and Romans , ending with a total defeat of Jewish rebels and extermination of Jewish presence in Cyprus and Cyrene by the newly installed Emperor Hadrian.

131-135 The Roman emperor Hadrian, among other provocations, renames Jerusalem "Aelia Capitolina"
Bar Kokhba (Bar Kosiba) leads a large doomed Jewish revolt against Rome in response to Hadrian's actions. In the aftermath of the revolt, most Jewish population was annihilated and Hadrian renamed the province of Judea as Syria Palaestina forbidding Jews to set foot in Jerusalem, except for Tisha B'av.

4th century

315-337 Roman Emperor Constantine I enacts new restrictive legislature.
Emperor Constantine I's conversion to Christianity around 330 CE made Christianity the official religion of Palaestina.
Conversion of Christians to Judaism is outlawed, congregations for religious services are curtailed, but Jews are also allowed to enter Jerusalem on the anniversary of the Temple's destruction. In 351-352, a Jews revolted against Byzantine rule in Tiberias and other parts of the was brutally suppressed. Imperial patronage for Christian cults and immigration was strong, and a significant wave of immigration from Rome, especially to the area about Aelia Capitolina and Bethlehem, took place after that city was sacked in 410.

Byzantium in the 6th Century

338-1458 Byzantium (East-Roman Empire)
The Byzantine rulers weren't exactly friendly to the Jews, because of the increasing power of the Christian Church. After Constantine's mother Empress Helena identified the spot she believed to be where Christ was crucified, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was built in Jerusalem. The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the Church of the Ascension in Jerusalem were also built during Constantine's reign. Palestine thus became a center for pilgrims and ascetic life for men and women from all over the world.

In 351-352, a Jews revolted against Byzantine rule in Tiberias and other parts of the was brutally suppressed. Imperial patronage for Christian cults and immigration was strong, and a significant wave of immigration from Rome, especially to the area about Aelia Capitolina and Bethlehem, took place after that city was sacked in 410.

358 Because of the increasing danger of Roman persecution, Hillel II creates a mathematical calendar for calculating the Jewish month. After adopting the calendar, the Sanhedrin in Tiberias is dissolved.
361-363 The last pagan Roman Emperor, Julian, allows the Jews to return to "holy Jerusalem which you have for many years longed to see rebuilt" and to rebuild the Second Temple.

363 Galilee earthquake
The Galilee earthquake of 363 was a severe earthquake that shook the Galilee and nearby regions. Tzippori was severely damaged. Nabratein and the Nabratein synagogue were destroyed. The earthquake may have been responsible for the failure of the plan to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem with the permission of the Emperor Julian's support of Jews, coming after the hostility of many earlier Emperors, meant that Jews called him Julian the Hellene.