Time Travel back to 70 CE (AD) Jerusalem

Nadene Goldfoot                                     

70 CE Romans Burn down Jerusalem and 2nd Temple 

The city of Rome itself had an abundance of people, and one way to survive longer was to join the army.

In the census of 70 BCE, prior to the major civil wars of the late Republic (and considerably more conquests in Gaul and the East), some have estimated the population of the 'Empire' at a more considerable 55 to 60 million people. This falls more in line with estimates at the height of imperial power in the mid 2nd century AD, and might be inflated. The census of 70 BC showed 910,000 men held citizenship.  

"73–63 BCE: The Roman Republic extends its influence into the region in the Third Mithridatic War. During the war, Armenian King Tigranes the Great takes control of Syria and prepares to invade Judea and Jerusalem but has to retreat."
                                                      

63 BCE: Roman Republic under Pompey the Great (106-48 BCE-Roman General) besieges and takes Jerusalem and the Temple from Aristobulus' supporters.  Judea was made a tributary and stripped of the territories acquired by the Hasmoneans.  Pompey ended the Jewish independence they had had since Simon the Maccabee.   

Pompey sacked Jerusalem and installed Hasmonean prince Hyrcanus II as Ethnarch and High Priest but not as king. Some years later Julius Caesar appointed Antipater the Idumaean, also known as Antipas, as the first Roman Procurator. Antipater's son Herod was designated "King of the Jews" by the Roman Senate in 40 BCE but he did not gain military control until 37 BCE. During his reign the last representatives of the Hasmoneans were eliminated, and the huge port of Caesarea Maritima was built.

Leading up to Jerusalem and the 2nd Temple's destruction, Antipater ruled Judea from the year 63 to 43 BCE.  He was the son of the ruler, Antipas of Idumea, (Edom-also called Mt. Seir) of the 1st century BCE.  The land of Edom lay South of the Dead Sea and bordered on the Red Sesa of Elath and Ezion Geber.  They were of Semitic origin, traditionally descendants of Esau, twin of Jacob,  sons of Isaac, son of Abraham,  and were hunters.  He grew rich from trade with Arabia.  He helped the Romans.  He was the father of Herod.  Esau had become his twin's enemy, and they were not identical twins.  
                                                    

 1st Emperor Augustus reigned from 31 BC to 14 CE.  He was grandnephew of Julius Caesar.  


                                                       

Herod as a young man

Herod the Great had a campaign to take the throne of Judea.  He took siege of Jerusalem in 37 BCE.  Mark Antony (Marcus Antonius) helped him by providing him with the necessary Roman forces that were successful.  Herod captured the city and got rid of Antigonus II Mattathias which brought an end to the Hasmonean rule of many years since 166 BCE. Judah hadn't had a proper king since Zedekiah who ruled from 597  to 586 BCE who had been appointed king by Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king  to succeed the exiled Jehoiachin when he was 21.  His mistake was in conspiring with the Egyptians which brought in the Babylonians who captured Jerusalem.  
                                                

Jews were living in Rome in the year 66 and had been there since 139 BCE.  The Great Revolt began in the year 66 CE, during the twelfth year of the reign of Emperor Nero( reign from 54 to 68- the last ruler of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. He was adopted by his great-uncle Claudius, thus becoming his heir and successor. Like Claudius, Nero became emperor with the consent of the Praetorian Guard.), originating in Roman and Jewish religious tensions. The crisis escalated due to anti-taxation protests and attacks upon Roman citizens by the Jews. The Roman governor, Gessius Florus, responded by plundering the Second Temple in Jerusalem, claiming the money was for the Emperor, and the next day launching a raid on the city, arresting numerous senior Jewish figures. This prompted a wider, large-scale rebellion and the Roman military garrison of Judaea was quickly overrun by the rebels, while the pro-Roman king Herod Agrippa II(28-93-last king of the house of Herod, son of Agrippa I.   

 Father Agrippa I (10 BCE -44 CE)  was king of Judea, son of Aristobulus and grandson of Herod.  Agrippa was educated at the court of the emperor Tiberius .  He was involved with Caligula and imprisoned by Tiberius for suspected treachery.  Freed with the title of king, he ruled over Galilee, S. Transjordan and after 41 CE by decree of the emperor Claudius, over Judea and Samaria.  He was beloved by his Jewish subjects because of his respect for the Jewish religion.  The governor of Syria was suspicious of him.  He died suddenly while attending the games in Caesarea.  After his death, his kingdom was again converted into an annex of the province of Syria.  

When his father died, Judaea reverted to the rule of the Procurators, but in the year 50, he received the principality of Chalcis and was made responsible for supervising the Temple in Jerusalem.  Emperor Claudius gave him the title of king.  he quarreled with the priests.  He had just gone to Jerusalem to restore alm from the 66 rebellion but had to flee for his life.), together with Roman officials, fled Jerusalem.
                                                    

 The Hasmonean Dynasty was started by Mattathias, a Cohen,  and his 5 sons who directed the popular revolt against the Hellenizing policy adopted by the Syrian king, Antiochus Epiphanes. We remember this history with Chanukah.  The Syrian Greeks had put statues of their gods in the holy Temple. Mattathias rebelled physically.  

  It was in 166 to 164 BCE that the Hasmoneans fought many battles, inventing guerilla tactics against the Syrians and by 164, Judah retook Jerusalem and rededicated the Temple.  This was followed by many raids to rescue the Jewish populations of Ammon, Idumea, Gilead and the Galilee.  

 Josephus, a Judean general captured by the Romans, saved his own life by becoming the Roman's scribe of this history, painting Rome in good light as that's who was keeping him alive.  He had to choose his words carefully.  

Herod the Great-a Killer b: 73 BCE d: 4 BCE

Herod became king of Judea, son of Antipater the Idumean by his Nabatean wife, Cypros.  He was appointed governor of Galilee by his father and liked to execute those breaking his laws.  The Sanhedrin called him on this.  He was spared punishment by intervention of Hyrcanus and Sextus Caesar, governor of Syria.  The Roman Senate made him king of Judea.  He married the Hasmonean Jewish princess, Marianne, granddaughter of the high priest, a Cohen, Hyrcanus II.  He murdered all those rivals to his power including his own brother in law.  One good thing he did was to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem on a magnificent scale and built 2 cities, Sebaste and Caesarea.  Herod had turned against the Nabateans and defeated them.  As a result of palace intrigues, he put to death his wife, Mariamne, their 2 sons, Alexander and Aristobulus, and even his firstborn, Antipater.

 Immediately following the deposition of King Herod Archelaus in 6 CE who had ruled from 4 BCE to 6 CE, son of Herod and Malthace the Samaritan, Judea was turned into a Roman province, during which time the Roman procurator was given authority to punish by execution. The general population also began to be taxed by Rome. The province of Judea was the scene of unrest at its founding in 6 CE during the Census of Quirinius, the Crucifixion of Jesus circa 30–33 CE, and several wars, known as the Jewish–Roman wars, were fought during its existence. Archelaus's rule was marked by such severity that he was removed from office by Emperor Augustus and he was exiled to Gaul where he died in 16 CE.  

                                                  

                        Sitting is Pontius Pilate, the Roman Procurator

There was a Joshua, born before the turn of the century, called Jesus in Greek who died in  29 CE at about the age of 35, who was the founder of Christianity.  He was said to be a Jew from Nazareth.  He was one of thousands of Jews who died on the one of the Roman crosses used for the final punishment of death. 
                                                       

 He had been arrested and was crucified by order of the Roman procurator, Pontius Pilate, Judea's 5th Roman governor, serving from 26 to 36 ."  He appears to have belonged to the well-attested Italian Pontii family of Samnite origin, but nothing is known for certain about his life before he became governor of Judaea, nor of the circumstances that led to his appointment to the governorship.  (The Samnites were an ancient Italic people who lived in Samnium in south-central Italy. They became involved in several wars with the Roman Republic until the 1st century BC. An Oscan-speaking people, the Samnites probably originated as an offshoot of the Sabines.) " A procurator was a governor of Judea and was under the Roman emperor of which 14 served between years 6 to 66.  They were subordinate to the Syrian legate who exercised his authority over the procurator if he was charged with abusing his office; as  if he was charged with being unduly extortionate in his treatment of the population or in the event of rebellion.  These procurators had the status of members of the equates class in administrative status.  They governed in place of the legate of Syria.  They really were independent governors armed with full administrative authority.  They enjoyed the "right of the sword," so had full powers to inflict punishment that included the death penalty.  This was enforced on people who were not Roman citizens.  If a Roman, they had the right to transfer their trial before the Emperor of Rome.  They lived in Caesarea, the administrative capital of Roman Judea.  
                                                       

   What Jesus had been preaching was closely akin to that of the Pharisaic preachers.  The Pharisees were a Jewish religious and political party during the 2nd Temple period who opposed the Sadducees.They were two groups who interpreted their Mosaic laws in slightly different ways.  I see their differences being a matter of teaching-style much more than content, for our laws from Moses were pretty concrete.  Many striking parallels exist between the sayings of Jesus and those of the rabbis.  They both had made use of parables.  Jesus put greater stress on the imminent end of the age and expected their present  social order to disappear swiftly.  It didn't take but about 300 years afterwards for Christianity to view Jews as competitors of their new faith and outlawed the practice of Judaism. 

 The Jews had been living since 63 BCE, over 70 years under occupation of Romans and were surrounded by these foreigners who were ruthless with a different morality than they who had been trying to change their beliefs ever since the Syrian-Greek days when then Hasmoneans fought against them and regained control.  The Jewish leaders feared for their very lives as well as losing their young people to these monsters.  Their religion was already over 1,000 years old.  They could not allow it to end, and were fighting hard to keep it going under these occupied conditions where they had no freedom.  

                                                 

                            1st Emperor Augustus  (born Dec. 30, BCE —died Sept. 13, 81 CE), Roman emperor (31 BCE to 14 CE), 

The Imperial Roman army was the land-traveling armed forces deployed by the Roman Empire from about 30 BC to 476 AD.  During this period, Augustus was the Emperor who ruled from 31 BCE to 14 CE.  His attitude toward the Jews of Jerusalem and Judea and the Diaspora was not a friendly one.  He was he one who confirmed the kingship of Herod and returned to him the areas which had been taken away through the influence of Cleopatra.   He converted Judea into a region governed by a procurator living in Caesarea.  

Under Augustus, the European borders of the empire he inherited from his grand-uncle Julius Caesar were considerably expanded. During the first half of his sole rule (30 BCE–9CE), Augustus' central strategic objective was to advance the Roman border from Illyricum and Macedonia to the line of the Danube, Europe's greatest river, in order both to increase strategic depth between the border and Italy and to provide a major fluvial supply route for the Roman armies in the region.

Rioting had been going on since the year 66 that was led by Judean rebel factions, when the Judean provisional government was formed in Jerusalem.  Jerusalem was occupied by the Roman army.  

                                  Emperor Titus and Emperor Tiberius           
                                                           

Here Titus leads his army with Jewish captives who carry loot from
the Temple back to Rome as is show on the Arch of Titus in Rome.  

The Roman army was led by the Roman's future Emperor, General Titus (79-81 CE) and his 2nd in command, Tiberius Julius Alexander. 
Tiberias became the 2nd emperor from the year 14 to 37 and was the stepson of the 1st, Augustus.  Titus would become the 10th  emperor from 79 to 81.  It was Tiberius who expelled the Jews from Rome in 19 because of a fraud perpetrated on a Roman matron sympathetic to Judaism.  4,000 young Jews were sent to Sardinia to fight the brigands.  Palestine was hardly administered under his rule when the crucifixion of Jesus happened.  

 Titus  started the siege 3 days before the holiday of Passover on April 14, 70 CE.  It lasted for 4 months, ending in August with the burning and destruction of the 2nd Temple.  That day is now remembered as Tisha B'Av.  People were starved to death.   Titus was the son of  the 9 th Emperor Vespasian (69-79).  Titus took over the command of the Roman army in Judea from his father in 70 CE when he destroyed Jerusalem after a 5 month siege.  The Romans deliberately destroyed the Temple with the object of eliminating the national religious center of the Jews.  

 3rd Emperor Caligula  reigned from 37 to 41.  He was the grandnephew of Tiberius.  He gave Agrippa, grandson of Herod, the tetrarchy of NE Judea and the title of king.  He insisted on being worshipped as a divinity and this caused a big problem among the Jews and was used as an excuse for anti-Jewish disturbances in Alexandria on the occasion of Agrippa's visit in 38.  Philo headed the Jewish delegation sent to intercede with Caligula, and has recorded a graphic impression of his court.  Caligula was assassinated which prevented serious consequences in the Jewish world.

4th Emperor Claudius reigned from 41 to 54 and was the uncle of Caligula.  He became emperor due to the help of his friend, Herod Agripia I, whom he approved as king, adding Judea to his Kingdom and uniting under him the whole area ruled by Herod.  Claudius issued edicts at once reaffirming Jewish religious autonomy in Alexandria.  When Agrippa I died in 44, Claudius put Judea under a procurator, but in 49 gave Agrippa's son, Agrippa II, regions of Judea to rule.  In 49 and 50 he expelled a number of Jews from Rome because of a Jewish-Christian conflict.  

5th Emperor Nero reigned from 54 to 65 or 68 and was the stepson of Claudius.  His reign coincided with a period of turmoil in Judea culminating in the outbreak of the war against Rome.  HIs wife, Poppaea, was sympathetic to Judaism.  Nero is not unfavorably represented in talmudical legend.  

6th Emperor Galba reigned from 68 to 69.
7th Emperor Otho reigned from January to April of 69.
8th Emperor Aulus Vitellius reigned from July to December of 69.  
                                                             

Roman Empire by 100 CE after Jerusalem's Destruction
They surrounded the Mediterranean Sea 

RESOURCE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antipater_the_Idumaean
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Titus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontius_Pilate
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontius_Pilate
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Jewish%E2%80%93Roman_War
https://www.britannica.com/topic/list-of-Roman-emperors-2043294

TIMELINE; Jews Living in Judea, Samaria and Other Places-Timeline- from 70 CE to Today

Nadene Goldfoot                                          
                                                                         

                                          Judaean Desert

1391-1271 BCE  from 70 sons, grandsons of Jacob to 611,30 Jews with Moses       

  1010 BCE-970 BCE  King David  of Israel , census of David: c 5,000,000 population
961 BCE to 920 BCE  King Solomon 

721 BCE: Assyrian attack on 10 northern Tribes of Israel, stolen away
597-586 BCE Babylonian Invasion 
          Babylonian exiles returning: 42,360  
167 BCE Revolt of Maccabees against Antiochus the Greek
165 BCE Rededication of Temple by Judas Maccabee (Hanukkah)  From 163 B.C.E. there is evidence of Jews in Rome.  They were probably slaves, Traders?  
139 BCE Jewish community in Rome, expulsed.  Jewish slaves later lived here.  
73 BCE-4 BCE Herod I, the Great, king of Judea appointed by Rome.  When he died, there were uprisings by the people so Roman General Publius Quinctilius Varus crucified 2,000 Jews to quell the uprisings.   

69 BCE:  Cleopatra:  Cleopatra was of Macedonian descent and not a native Egyptian. She was the second daughter of King Ptolemy XII and the last sovereign of her dynasty, which had been founded by Alexander’s general, Ptolemy, in 326 BC. She came to power in 51 BC, at the age of seventeen, and was married to her eldest brother, Ptolemy XIII. 
30 BCE  Herod the Great by Julius Caesar, crucifixions; 25,000 Jews till 70 CE.  
 5 BCE, in Bethlehem, Judea, Roman soldiers stationed in Jerusalem from Greece, Gaul and Syria were following Roman appointed King  Herod's orders to kill all male children under age 2.                                

 1 CE 1st century Abba Sikra zealot in Jerusalem during the revolt against the Romans, alias Ben Batiah.  nephew of R Johanan ben Zakkai, helped to escape from Jerusalem.    In the year 6 CE. there were Jews at Vienne, France and Gallia Celtica which would be today's " Switzerland, France, Luxembourg and the west bank of the Rhine in Germany.".   "The first settlements of Jews in Europe are obscure;  in the year 39 at Lugdunum (i.e. Lyon) which is Lyon, France started in the year 43.  
19 CE Jews again expulsed from Rome. 
29 CE Jesus was crucified during Pontius Pilate's rule; starting the narration of Christianity., About 25,000 Jews crucified by Herod till 70 CE.     
49-50 CE Jews again expulsed from Rome. 
60 CE-Nero ruling: 700,000 Jews in Judea, 1,500,000 Jews scattered in other places.  , 4,200,00 Jews in the world, most likely less.  
61-63 CE  Jeshua Ben Damna, high priest, appointed by Herod Agrippa II, displaced by Gamla and ensued a struggle, toward end of the siege of Jerusalem of 70 CE fled to the Romans with other members of the priestly families.
c.65 CE  In town of Pekiin, Rabbi Simeon ben Yohai and son Eleazar hid from Romans in a cave for 13 years.

70 CE Jerusalem burned down, Temple destroyed, Jews starved to death before, taken prisoners.   1st Academy (university to educate rabbis) founded set up by Johanan ben Zakkai at Jabneh in Judah, south of Jaffa, reestablished the Great Sanhedrin in Jabneh until 132 of Bar Kokhba's Revolt.  
70 CE families of 24 Cohenim moved to outside of Jerusalem, each family to a different town, where their descendants lived until 1948. One place was near Kiryat Ata, now Shfar Am, an Arab town.  It has an ancient synagogue.  Survivor interviewed by Sandi Zigelman.
                                                                       

  Arch of General Titus, soon to become emperor,  Menorah Relief; Romans taking away Menorah, other things from Jerusalem, taking 97,000 slaves from Judaea in 70 CE

66-73 CE Judaea which was a Roman Province had the first Jewish-Roman War.  The Sadducees and Pharisees fought against the Roman Empire.  The Jewish commanders and leaders were Ananus ben Ananus, Eliezar ben Hanania, Josef ben Matityahu, and Simon Bar Giora.  In the early stage the Roman guard had 3,000 against 10,000 under Ananus and 15,000 under Bar Giora.  The Romans Syrian Legion had 30,000 in Beth Horon while there were only 500 Adiabene warriors fighting for Judaea.  Eleazar had 20,000 Idumeans fighting.  6,000 were under John and 2,400 were under Eleazar, who were the radical factions.  Then the Romans brought out 5 Legions of 60,000 to 80,000 men at the Jerusalem siege.  Judaea had about 200 Sicarii fighting.  20,000 Roman soldiers were killed while 25,000 to 30,000 Judean rebels were killed and 10,000 radical factions.  In the end, 1.1 million Jewish militant and civilians were killed and 97,000 were enslaved and most likely taken to Rome. 

72 CE 12,000 Jews taken as slaves from Judah to Rome to build the Colosseum under Vespasian.  

Masada in 73 CE Herod's Palace, where 960 Jewish Sicarii (Jewish zealots armed with small daggers) had been living in refuge, committed suicide after 3 months of being sieged by Roman Legion led by Lucius Flavius Silva with 15,000 troops.  1 woman, 5 children escaped.  Story told by Josephus.

From 37  to 100 CE, the land of Judah had been occupied by the Romans as told by Flavius Josephus, a Jewish Historian who was captured by the Romans.  He was hired to write the history of their occupation in the Jewish land.  Individual Jews lived in France before 70 CE.   "The Romans destroyed the Jews' 2nd Temple in Jerusalem and took over the city in 70 CE.  They burned Jerusalem down and took away Jews as slaves for Rome while many others fled. Many  people of Judah had scattered to the 4 winds but  a number were able to remain in Judah.  Organized Jewish communities existed in France in the period of the Roman Empire.  Their position deteriorated with the growth of Christianity and its powers.

"As the siege of the capital, Jerusalem,  in the year 70 began on the day of the Passover sacrifice (V, 13, 7, VI, 9, 3), to which naturally many thousands of pilgrims had arrived from all parts of the country, the number of the besieged was very great. Among them were many from beyond the Euphrates and other foreign lands (Dio Cassius, 66. 4). 1,100,000 men perished during the siege, 97,000 were taken captive (VI, 9, 3); of these only 40,000 were preserved (8, 2), all citizens of Jerusalem (8, 2), the rest were sold for slaves, some sent into the mines in Egypt (9, 2), others distributed among the provinces for the circuses."and where did the 40,000 settle after having been allowed to go where they liked ?

Josephus mentions one of the four sons of the high priest Matthias , the high priests Joseph and Jesus, and three sons of the high priest Ishmael, four sons of a Matthias, and many other nobles who succeeded in escaping from the besieged capital to the Romans (VI, 2, 2). 

Many of the eminent citizens ran away to Titus (V, 13, 7) and told him the number of the poor who had died. Titus allowed these to retire to Gofna; there, he said, they should stay till his hands would be free from the war, when he would restore to them their property. Among the numerous deserters was the priest Jesus, son of Thebuthi , who surrendered many costly vessels of the Temple, as well as the curtains and the robe of the high priest. The treasurer of the Temple also fell into the hands of the Romans and was exceptionally pardoned in exchange for valuable stuff, priestly garments, and costly spices.

 Already, after Cestius's defeat in the year 66, many of the nobles had left Jerusalem as if it were a sinking ship; for instance, the two brothers Costobarus and Saul, along with Phillip, son of Jakimos, who had been a general of Agrippa's troops (II, 20, 1). 

After the entry of the Romans into Jerusalem,  Titus liberated all those Jews who had been thrown into prison by zealots (VI, 9.1); they also most probably belonged to the wealthy section of the population.   It may be assumed as almost certain that the members of both groups, of the priestly and of the lay nobility of Jerusalem, at the conclusion of the war received their landed property, and assisted the poor country of Judaea in recovering from its terrible downfall. 

Where they settled is nowhere indicated by Josephus; he lived in Rome and seemed to evince no interest in the state of his native country after the destruction. It is possible that, though owning land in Judaea, some of the nobles settled outside Judaea, as Josephus, who, in exchange for his fields near Jerusalem, received from Titus others in the plain, and was rewarded by Vespasian by additional property in Judaea 

115 CE Jews were expulsed from Cyprus
132-135 CE Hadrianic War:  Jewish General Bar Kochba's Revolt  when Jerusalem was liberated for a time, Roman emperor Hadrian rebuilt Jerusalem as a Roman colony, Aelia Capitolina and forbid Jews to approach it under pain of death.  Now Judah was renamed Palaestina by the Romans.There were about 200 towns and villages where Jews live in Beersheba-Arad Valley and 204 towns and villages in the Galilee.  580,000 Jews slain.

" From this time on, in spite of unimportant movements under Antoninus, Marcus Aurelius, and Severus, the Jews, reduced in numbers, destitute, and crushed, lost their preponderance in their own homeland. Jerusalem had become, under the name "Ælia Capitolina", a Roman colony and entirely pagan city. Jews were forbidden entrance on pain of death, except for the day of Tisha B'Av, see also Anti-Judaism in the Roman Empire. Yet despite the decree, there has been an almost continual Jewish presence in Jerusalem for 3,300 years, and 43 Jewish communities in Israel remained in the 6th century: 12 on the coast, in the Negev desert, and east of the Jordan, and 31 villages in Galilee (in the northern Land of Israel) and in the Jordan Valley. Yavne on the coastal plain, associated with Yochanan ben Zakai, was an important center of Rabbinic Judaism" :"After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, Rabban Yochanan Ben Zakkai moved the Sanhedrin to Yavne. It was 12.32 miles south of Jaffa.  Some scholars believe the so-called Council of Yavne met there. The Sanhedrin left Yavne for Usha in 80 CE and returned in 116 CE.

2nd Century CE  Seat of Sanhedrin under Rabbi Judah Ha-Nasi was Shepharam, in the Lower Galilee.  

"After the Bar Kochba Revolt of 132-135 AD the Romans engaged in mass executions and enslavement, and destroyed large numbers of Judaean towns, forbidding Jews from settling in Jerusalem or its environs (Dio Cassius, Roman History 69.12-14); there was no further Jewish government or overarching legal system thereafter in Judaea; this effectively turned the expatriate Jews of the Diaspora into a permanently exiled people with no national homeland. Restrictions (taxation, discrimination, social exclusions) further alienated and marginalized remaining Jews in the Negev and Galilee and favored the settlement of culturally pagan Syro-Phoenicians and others.^{[citation needed]} It was at this time that Judaea became normatively known as Syria Palestina. The name reflected both the large scale killing^{[citation needed]} of Jews during the suppression of the 2nd Jewish revolt, and a Roman policy, first pagan, then Christian, to alienate Jews from the Land of Israel and Judaea, ensuring that no Jewish temple, Jerusalem or state ever rose again."

139  Jews expelled from Rome.  
Jews were living in Germany from 100 to 1299 CE.

From 198 to 224 CE, the Parthian Empire collapsed which was largely populated by Israelites.  The empire, located on the Silk Road trade route between the Roman Empire in the Mediterranean Basin and the Han Empire of China, became a center of trade and commerce.
                                                                   

                                Central Asia 200-800 CE-Epicenter of Great Migration

From 200 to 800 CE was a great migration period with Central Asia as the epicenter where Jews were leaving and going into Europe.   Jews were found settling in Germany in the early 5th century which would be as early as the 400s CE and continuing to arrive there through the 10th century of 900s.  On 640, 721 and 873 Jews in the Byzantine Empire were forcibly converted to Christianity.  This was the Greek speaking Roman Empire with headquarters in Constantinople alias Istanbul.  It was later a part of the Ottoman Empire.

A decree of the emperors Theodosius II and Valentinian III, addressed to Amatius, prefect of Gaul (Gaul (Latin: Gallia) was a region of Western Europe during the Iron Age and Roman era, encompassing present day France,Luxembourg, Belgium, most of Switzerland, parts of Northern Italy, as well as the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the west bank of the Rhine)  (9 July 425), prohibited Jews and pagans from practicing law and from holding public offices ("militandi"), in order that Christians should not be in subjection to them, and thus be incited to change their faith. From the year 465 the Church took official cognizance of the Jews. Jews were found in Marseille in the sixth century
300  3 million Jews in world
335-427 Ashi, editor of the Babylonian Talmud, headed the academy of Sura which he re-established at Mata Mehasya.  which is in "Sasanian Babylonia."

570-632 Mohammad, started Islam, Jewish tribes were living in Medina, Arabia, converted many Jews.  

628 Jerusalem  Byzantine ruled Jerusalem with emperor Heraclius.
630 -632 Byzantine emperor Heraclius decreed that all Jews in empire must convert to Christianity.
638 Jerusalem Caliph Omar set up in Temple esplanade place of Muslim prayer

From 652 to 1016 CE the kingdom of Khazaria in the Caucasus Mountains thrived with King Bulan converting himself and his family of about 2,000 to Judaism after listening to the speeches of a Jew, a Christian and a Muslim tell him about their belief.  He chose the Jewish religion to replace his pagan one.  Khazaria was a refuge for many Jews who left more oppressive lands towards Jews.  So it was a mixture of religions sitting on the Silk Road and involved in much trading.
691 Dome of the Rock built by Muslim Umayyad caliph Abd-elMalik, now Jews allowed to return to Jerusalem.  
700 Jews were living in Lithuania. "Lithuanian Jews or Litvaks are Jews with roots in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania: (present-day Lithuania, Belarus,Ukraine, Latvia and the northeastern Suwałki region of Poland). 
722-723 Escaped from Byzantine Empire from Emperor Leo III, who forced Jews to adopt Christianity

742 to 814 CE:   Jews lived under Charlemagne who was crowned king of the Franks and of Italy in 768.    The community prospered under Charlemagne.  Charlemagne united most of Western Europe for the first time since the Roman Empire. His rule spurred the Carolingian Renaissance, a period of cultural and intellectual activity within the Catholic Church.  Aaron (Abu Aharon) Ben Samuel, Mystic and wonder-worker, left Baghdad about 870 and wandered through Italy, teaching Kabbalistic lore.  Pupil was Moses ben Kalonymos of Lucca, Italy who carried his teachings to Germany, regarded as father of Kabbalistic study in Europe.  
800s Lyons, France, Jewish settlement to Roman times, Agobard and Amulo, bishops of Lyons claimed that the Jews were excessively privileged by the king and that the market-day had been changed from Saturday to suit their convenience.    Both the French and German monarchies considered their kingdoms to be descendants of Charlemagne's empire.  From the 700s under the protection of Charlemagne and his house, Jewish merchants began to settle in France for purposes of trade, importing foreign luxuries and establishing new communities up the Rhone Valley and into Champagne.  By the 9th century,  southern France was the main center of the activity of the international traders, the Radanites.  
860  Forced conversion of Byzantine Jews by Emperor Basil I -end of century Jews couldn't hold public office, intermarry with Christians or own Christian slaves, forced to read bible in Greek and not in Hebrew, not to convert Christians on pain of death and property would be taken, couldn't testify for Christians during legal proceedings or build new synagogues-forcing the inferior status of byzantine Jews in comparison to Orthodox Christians. 
932  Byzantine emperor Romanus I Lecapenus persecuted Jews, tried to convert them to Christianity, so murdered hundreds of Jews and destroyed many synagogues.  Jews migrated to Khazaria from Muslim and Byzantine lands, Joseph , king of Khazars welcomed them to settle in Khazaria.  

1000s  Jew Street in Aachen, Germany. 
 Fatimids of 11th century built a 2nd mosque, El-Aksa, on Temple site.  
1034: First synagogue erected in Worms, Germany (oldest city in Germany)  established by the Celts, "Worms also played prominently into the Protestant Reformation in the early sixteenth century, the site of Martin Luther's stand before the 1521 Diet of Worms, and also the birthplace of the first Bibles of the Reformation, German and English."
1040:  Abiathar Ben Elijah Ha-Cohen, died in 1109, last Gaon in Eretz Yisrael.  Exiled after violent quarrel with Egyptian exilarch David ben Daniel.  work found in Cairo genizah, left at the time of the 1st Crusade, transferring the seat of the Gaonate to Syria.  
                                                                              

This was the seat of Rashi (1040-1105) and the Tosaphists.  Jews were being excluded from trade and handicrafts which drove them more and more into money-lending which in Northern France became their economic stand-by.  Rashi studied in the Rhineland which was Germany.  He died in Troyes, Champagne, France.  He earned his livelihood with his vineyard.  He was author of well known concise commentary on the bible.  He had 3 daughters; Jochaved, Miriam,  and Rachel.  
1060 Itzhak Tzarfarti died in Worms, Germany
1096 to 1254 CE  started the first of 7 Crusades.  Jews suffered during the Crusades in Eretz Yisrael and in Europe as well. 800 Jews murdered by crusaders and local mob.  
1099 Godfrey of Bouillon stormed Jerusalem as Crusader and it became the capital of the Latin Kingdom.   Jewish community in Jerusalem massacred by the Crusaders.  Jews and Muslims fought together against Crusaders.
1110-1165  Maimon Ben Joseph, scholar, father of Maimonides, of Cordova, Spain, author of an Arabic commentary on the Bible, left Spain in 1148 because of persecution, went to Fez, Egypt and wrote a book upholding the faith of those Jews who were forced to convert to Islam.  Settled in Egypt.  
1121:  300 Jews from France and England made aliyah to Palestine
1145: Abraham Ibn Ezra lived in Mantua, Italy, formerly capital of a duchy.  May have only had a few families then.  
1146- Jews of Spain forcibly converted to Christianity.  Jews were massacred in European towns by marauding Crusaders.     In this 11th-12th century era, the Jewish communities of Northern France were the most densely settled in Europe--if not in the world.  The Talmud was the main branch of study.  
1160 -1238  Eleazar ben Judah of Worms, (Eleazar Ben Judah Ben Kalonymos), alias Rabbi of Worms and Eleazar Rokea, born in Mainz, Franconia, Germany, died in Worms, Germany, Rabbi, mystic, Talmudist, codifier, wrote "book of the Pious", part of eminent Kalonymos family which gave medieval Germany many spiritual leaders and mystics, Kabbalist. 
1161 Jews in Granada, Spain, narrative of being Jews from tribes of Judah and Benjamin in Judaea.
1170 Middle Ages:  Benjamin of Tudelea said there were 1,049,565 Jews of which 100,000 lived in Persia and India, 100,000 in Arabia and 300,000 in the East he hadn't seen.  (500,000 in visited countries)=total 740,000
1175 Rashi Synagogue in Worms, Germany built
1182 Jews expulsed from royal dominions of France. 
1185 Aaron of Lincoln died, was an English financier, extended business to 25 English counties, many of nobility, property was confiscated by the Crown, took his money that was owed to him.  
1187 Ayyubid sultan Saladin retook Jerusalem for Islam, remaining in Muslim hands except for a  few years in 13th century.  
1200 1 million Jews in world, had lost 2 million
1200-1300  Aaron Ben Jacob Ha-Cohen, French talmudist, expulsed from France in 1306 with other Jews, went to Majorca, finished Jewish laws list there.  
Aaron Ben Joseph Ha-Levi, Spanish talmudic authority, studied under Nahmanides in Barcelona, Spain, famous teacher.  
1214-1414  a DNA bottleneck shows that Ashkenazis all come from only 350 Jews during this period.  Report earlier was that Jews came from only 4 women of different periods.  
1240s  Jews of Kiev, Ukraine  disrupted by the Mongol invasion, many escaped to other                                     regions, may have eventually returned
1267:  Nahmanides made aliyah to Palestine
1283-April 19 during PassoverJews murdered in Mainz-ritual blood libel accusations
1285-Oct. 23, 68 Jews murdered and 180 burned in synagogue -blood libel
1283-1287 Anti-Jewish riots from the Rhine, Germany, Jewish families emigrated to Israel
1290: Expulsion of 16,000 Jews from England.  
1306 Expulsion of the 100,000 Jews from France.
1300s to 1400s Mameluke Period, new building were erected, water supply improved.  
1322 Another expulsion of Jews from France
1349-60 Jews expelled from Hungary
1346 to 1353 Jew were accused of well poisoning during the Black Death period  which led to mass slaughter of German Jews and they fled in large numbers then to Poland.  
1355: 12,000 Jews massacred by the mob in Toledo, Spain.  
1391: Jews of Spain again forcibly converted to Christianity. 
1394 Another expulsion of Jews from France
1420 Jewish community destroyed in Toulouse, France
1421: Jews expelled from Austria
1484  Professing Jews were excluded from Andalusia 
1488:  Obadiah of Bertinoro made aliyah to Palestine
1492: Spanish Inquisition:  Expulsion of 180,000 -200,000 Jews from Spain, 50,000 converted                 to  Christianity who remain in Spain.  Pious immigrants from many lands returned to                   an almost extinct Jewish population in Judea.  , numbers were artificially restricted by                  the government.  Also expulsed from Sicily and Sardinia (Spanish possessions)
1495: Jews expelled from Lithuania
           Jews expelled from Grodno, Belarus
1497: Jews expelled from Sicily and Sardinia and Portugal, forced conversion otherwise.  
1498  Jews expulsed from Navarre
1502: All Jews  of Rhodes forcibly converted, expelled or taken into slavery
1503  Jews from Grodno, Belarus returned, spared from the Khmelnytsky massacres               in 1648.
1500's    Four Jewish communities left:  Frankfurt 2,000;  Worms 1,400;  Prague 10,000;        Vienna  3,000.  

1510 -1573  Solomon Ben Jehiel Luria, alias Maharshal, rabbi and codifier in Lithuania and Poland, finally in Lublin; 
1512 or 1525-1609 Jews expulsed from Provence,  Rabbi Jehuda Loew Ben Bezalel  "Maharal of Prague, Czechoslovakia/ Worms, Germany; genealogies trace him to Rashi; created the Golem.  Maharal was chief Rabbi of Prague (Moraynu HaReav Judah LOEW ben B'zalel.
1541 Jews expelled from kingdom of Naples.
1564:  Joseph Nasi from Italy made aliyah with his group
1534-1572 Isaac Ben Solomon Luria, alias "Ashkenazi,"   Judean kabbalist, born in Jerusalem, educated in Egypt, lived in Safed from 1570 , lived ascetic life, saintly character, identified ancient graves in Galilee, teacher
1541:  Jews expelled from the Kingdom of Naples.
1555  Aboab, family of Spanish origin, scholar and writer, born of Marrano parents, emigrated                 to Italy, reverted back to Judaism.
1569 Jews expelled from smaller centers of papal dominions in Italy and France.
1604-1657 Manasseh ben Israel, Dutch rabbi, born of Marrano parentage as Manoel Dias Soeiro, went to Amsterdam as child, was child prodigy, 18 years old became rabbi.  
1625  Jewish population in Judea brutally despoiled by the local pasha Muhammad ibn Farukh.
1630 -1703  Samuel Oppenheimer/Oppenheim, philanthropist and Court Jew, the first to settle in Vienna, Austria after the 1670 expulsion, was King Leopold the First's  agent and financier; helping to finance his wars with Turks and War of the Spanish succession; in 1697 was accused of conspiring to murder his rival and great friend, Samson Wertheimer and imprisoned until vindicated.  Liberally supported poor, Jewish scholars, and Judah Hasid's movement to settle in Palestine.   Jewish Ghetto in 1630.  
1635-1683   Abraham Abele of Gombin, Polish talmudist and rabbi of Kalish.                              
1645 Rabbi  David Ashkenazy died, who was the Rabbi in Lemberg, Poland.  Ancestor of the Gaon of Vilna.    1648-56:  100,000 Jews murdered in the Chmielnicki massacres in Poland
                                                                      

                    Rabbi Samson Wertheimer of which my family shares a few genes, or his brother, Moses.

1700: 1 million Jews in world,  hasn't changed since 1200.  
1700   1,500 Jews from eastern Europe made aliyah to Palestine via Rabbi Judah Hasid's call.  

1658- 1724   Rabbi Samson Wertheimer lived and died  in Vienna, Austria, but was born in Worms, Germany, King Leopold 's finance-Minister, entrusted with the financial secrets of the country, supplied much of the war material for the army with Spain.  Fought against those who told malicious lies about the Jewish people.   
c1660-c1746 Rabbi Yehiel Heilprin in Minsk, Russia.  Talmud scholar, Kabbalah, chief Rabbi of Minsk.  
1664-1736  David Oppenheim/Oppenheimer, Rabbi and bibliophiole, nephew of Samuel Oppenheimer, born in Worms, Germany, Rabbi in Nikolsburg and from 1702 in Prague, had library of books, kept them in Hanover because of censorship in Prague.  
1685: Hirsch Rothschild zur hinteren Pfanne died in Germany.  
1698  Joseph Ben Issachar Susskind Oppenheimer; endeavored to consolidate the duchy's finances and free its ruler from dependence on grants from the estates which aroused much opposition and after the duke died in 1737, he was accused of embezzling state finances hanged in Stuttgart for having sexual relations with Christian women, refused baptism; in novel Jew Suss by Lion Feuchtwanger.  
1700-1760 Baal Shem Tov, Israel Ben Eliezer, founder of Hasidism; European Jews numbered 1,360,000
1707 -1747, Italian Jewish Kabbalist and poet born and educated in  Padua, Italy thought of himself as forerunner of Messiah,  dabbled in the esoteric, mystical austerities. 
                                                                   

                                                             Gaon of Vilna, Lithuania 

1720 -1797   Rabbi Eliyahu ben Solomon, Gaon of Vilna
1727,  1739, 1742, 1747:  Jews expelled from Little Russia, 
1730   Iones "Jonah" Goldfus, Telsiai, Kaunas, Lithuania
1754-1800:  Solomon Maimon, philosopher, son of Lithuanian village inn-keeper, child prodigy, married at 14, father at 15, taught himself German, age 25 left for Germany, became a 
wandering begger.  went to Berlin, wrote, philosopher
1758  Rabbi Shlomo-Zalman  of Vilna died.  His wife was Treina and they were the parents of the Gaon of Vilna, Lithuania.  
1764  By 1764 there were about 750,000 Jews in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The worldwide Jewish population (comprising the Middle East and the rest of Europe) was estimated at 1.2 million.
1772 Poland-Lithuanian Commonwealth Jews =308,500.  World Jewish population=1,000,000. 
1780:  Jewish community organized in Manchester, England.  
1786:  Jewish Population: Prague=7,951;  
1790's Hasidim and followers of Vilna Gaon made aliyah to Palestine

19th Century:  2,000 European Jews converted to Christianity every year this century=222,000.    

 1800   2.5 million Jews in world
1800s  Samauel David Luzzatto, Italian scholar, professor at Padua Rabbinical College, Hebrew literature scholar.  Europeans returned brought about population revival going from 
3,000 Jews in 1838 to  50,000 Jews in 1910.  Abraham Ben Alexander Katz of Kalisk, died 
1809:President Reuven  Rivlin ancestor made aliyah to Jerusalem 
1810, Hasidic rabbi, studied under Elijah of Vilna , later joined Hasidic movement.  
1811:  Jewish Population:  Frankfurt=2,214
1825  3.25 million Jews in world
1838:  Entire Jewish community in Meshed, Persia, forcibly converted to Islam
1840  4.5 million Jews in world
1840  Damascus, Syria Blood Libel of Jews ; Jews of southern Russia lived 13 to a house
1843 Jewish Population:  Prague=5,646
1850: Madison, Wisconsin, USA had 17 Jewish families from Central europe living there.  They founded Congregation Shaare Shomayim in 1959.  
1850-1880:  20,000-30,000 Jews settled in Palestine
1855  New quarters built outside the Old City wall by Sir Moses Montefiore.
1856 Reform synagogue in Manchester, England built.  
1880  7.7 million Jews in world
1881:  End of 19th Century:  World population of Jews=6,200,000 of which Sephardic only 314,000.   
1882-1890:  750,000 Jews living in Russia forced to re-settle in the Pale of Settlement.
                                       Jerusalem was connected with Jaffa by a railway line; Aaron Aaronson, Romanian taken to Palestine , founder of Zikhron Yaakov, studied agronomy in France, worked in Metullah , was leader, advisor to Turkish commander Jemal Pasha, oranized underground intelligence service NILI.  
1890 Persecutions in Russia sent thousands of Russian Jews to Palestine.  
1891:  Jews expelled from Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia
1898  Herzl greeted German emperor William II who visited Jerusalem.
1900  10.7 million Jews in world
1904-1905:  World Population of Jews=10,932,777.  

1914-1917  World War I  population fell to 50,000, occupied by General Allenby, head of British                       army, British rule under Mandate, period of rapid growth.  
1914  August 1, Germany declared war on Russia,  Hebrew calendar was 9th of Av, day of mourning for Jews as Temple was destroyed on this date, Jewish national day of mourning. Stanley Goldfoot born in South Africa, lived there till age 18.  90,000 Jews living in Palestine.  
1917:  50,000 Jews living in Palestine
1923:  Norman Mailer US novelist of WWII, The Naked and the Dead.  
1925  14.9 million Jews in world 
1931:  190,000 Jews living in Palestine
1933  Stanley Goldfoot immigrated from South Africa to Palestine
1936-1938:   53,000 Jews immigrated to Palestine
1938:  Kristallnacht in Worms, Germany, Jewish quarter destroyed.
1939  16.7 million Jews in world  
1939-1945:  Holocaust; murder of 6 million Jews by Nazis and European collaborators
1941:  Jewish community in Baghdad, Iraq attacked by mobs; 180 dead
1946  10.8 million Jews in world (6 million massacred in Holocaust) 
1948 to today persecution of Jewish communities in Arab countries, mass expulsions 
1948, May 14th Establishing State of Israel.  650,000 Jews. 
1948-1967 Judea/Samaria ruled by Jordan who annexed it in 1950
1962  13.0 million Jews in world
1972  640,600 Muslim Arabs living in Judea/Samaria from British Mandate 
1975  14.2 million Jews in world
1990: Madison, Wisconsin, USA had 4,500 Jews with 3 synagogues.  
2012  Ariel, Judea/Samaria  Jewish population 18,638
2013  Judea-Samaria Jewish population now 375,000
2014  Israel has 6 million Jews; 330,000 live in neighborhoods of Jerusalem; Judea/Samaria has blocks with 5 villages,towns in Northern Samaria=2,646; 11 vt.of Ariel-Elkana Block=52,000; 4 vt. of Magleh Adumem Block=46,458; 4 vt. of Eastern Etzion = 5,492; 17vt.of Samaria which Itamar is=31.212; 1city of Betar Illit=47,311; 3vt of Kiryat Sefer Block=65,004; 27vt of Jordan Valley=7,432; 9vt of Gush Etzion=22,479; 16vt of Hevron Hill=15,851; 26vt of Binyamin Region=76,794.  

2023, October 7;  Israel attacked by Hamas; 1,400 killed; 240 kidnapped, held as hostages; Israel declared war.  

2023, November 29, 155 hostages still held by Hamas; 10 per day released since 11/26.  day 54.

"In 2006, a study by Doron Behar and Karl Skorecki of the Technion and Ramban Medical Center in Haifa, Israel demonstrated that the vast majority of Ashkenazi Jews, both men and women, have Middle Eastern ancestry.According to Nicholas Wades' 2010 Autosomal study Ashkenazi Jews share a common ancestry with other Jewish groups and Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews have roughly 30% European ancestry with the rest being Middle Eastern.According to Hammer, the Ashkenazi population expanded through a series of bottlenecks—events that squeeze a population down to small numbers—perhaps as it migrated from the Middle East after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD, to Italy, reaching the Rhine Valley in the 10th century."

"Another 2013 study, made by Doron M. Behar of the Rambam Health Care Campus in Israel and others, suggests that: "Cumulatively, our analyses point strongly to ancestry of Ashkenazi Jews primarily from European and Middle Eastern populations and not from populations in or near the Caucasus region. The combined set of approaches suggests that the observations of Ashkenazi proximity to European and Middle Eastern populations in population structure analyses reflect actual genetic proximity of Ashkenazi Jews to populations with predominantly European and Middle Eastern ancestry components, and lack of visible introgression from the region of the Khazar Khaganate—particularly among the northern Volga and North Caucasus populations—into the Ashkenazi community."

Resource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Germany
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2014/08/jewish-history-in-eretz-yisrael.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthian_Empire
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_France
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlemagne
http://www.lordsandladies.org/crusades-timeline.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Jerusalem_(AD_70)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masada
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worms,_Germany
http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/biblicalhistory/ss/ErasJewishHist_7.htm
http://books.google.com/books?id=U7-QeffdZh4C&pg=PA91&lpg=PA91&dq=Early+Judaean+towns&source=bl&ots=OOUDBIGTWx&sig=ax2Tj7CsG-IbKiJr9zQvr-MRSpA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=LXn3U9LgI-qoigKHq4GQCg&ved=0CFcQ6AEwCg#v=onepage&q=Early%20Judaean%20towns&f=false
http://www.adath-shalom.ca/buchler.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithuanian_Jews
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_diaspora  Excellent
http://israelempowered.nationbuilder.com/official_population_count_for_judea_and_samaria_dec_31_2013 Excellent!!!
http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/the-jewish-demographic-bomb-judea-and-samaria-up-4-3-in-2013/2014/02/25/
http://www.wnd.com/2014/08/why-israel-must-never-cede-judea-samaria/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariel_(city)
After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, Rabban Yochanan Ben Zakkai moved the Sanhedrin to Yavne. Some scholars believe the so-called Council of Yavne met there. The Sanhedrin left Yavne forUsha in 80 CE and returned in 116 CE.
The Source by James Mitchener
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
Facts About Israel, division of Information, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Jerusalem
Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)
Killing Jesus by Bill O'Reilly & Martin Dugard
The Settlers by Meyer Levin; simon and Schuster Publishers, 1972
The Jews of Khazaria by Kevin Alan Brook
Updated 11/3/14 Historical Jewish Population comparisons, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_Jewish_population_comparisons 
*****Excellent Video on youtube:  The Mystery of the Jews https://www.youtube.com/embed/j6k1jHAYtbI#t=1226
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2015/04/jerusalem-in-judahs-judean-hills-of.html, tells about life after 70CE and the Academys that took over, Sanhedrin that was established, etc.
Finding Our Father, a guidebook to Jewish genealogy by Dan Rottenberg