be remembered, that the writers who thus speak, all lived some three centuries or more after the event. Nor does a greater degree of credit seem due to the relation of Jewish writers, which is also repeated by Jerome, that the governor of the province, Titus Annius Rufus, caused the plough to be passed over the site of the ancient temple in order to desecrate it forever. There is no evidence that the Romans ever applied this symbol of perpetual doom to the sites of single edifices. And further, Adrian himself is expressly said to have erected a temple to Jupiter upon the same spot,2 a circumstance entirely inconsistent with such a desecration; and Julian, two centuries later, the zealous protector of ancient superstitions, encouraged the Jews themselves to undertake the rebuilding of their temple.-Both these accounts, therefore, would seem rather to belong to the legendary inventions of a later age.

The work of rebuilding the city would appear to have been resumed immediately after the close of the war, if not before. In A. D. 136, the emperor Adrian celebrated his Vicennalia, on entering upon the twentieth year of his reign. On such occasions, which heretofore only Augustus and Trajan had lived to see, it seems to have been customary to build or consecrate new cities, or also to give to former cities new names.3 At this time the new Roman colony established upon the site of the former Jerusalem, received the names of Colonia Elia Capitolina; the former after the praenomen of the emperor, Ælius Adrianus; and the

1) The Rabbins call him Turanus Rufus; Eusebius simply Rufus, Hist. Ecc. IV. 6. See Gemara Taanich c. 4, "quando aravit Turanus Rufus impius porticum," etc. Maimonides in Bartoloc. Biblioth. Rabb. III. p. 679. Hieron. Comm. in Zachar. viii. 19, "Capta urbs

Bethel (Bether), ad quam multa millia confugerant Judaeorum; aratum templum in ignominiam gentis oppressae, a Tito Annio Ruffo." Münter 1. c. p. 71.

2) See Note 1, on the next page. 3) Pagi Critica Antibaroniana ad Ann. Chr. 132, 135.

latter in honour of the Jupiter Capitolinus, whose fane now occupied the place of the Jewish temple.' The place became to all intents a Roman and pagan city; Jupiter was made its patron god; and statues of Jupiter and Venus were then or later erected on sites, which afterwards were held to be the places of the crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord. The city was probably strongly fortified. Of its citadel and the apparent extent of its walls, we have already spoken.3

The ancient capital of the Jews was henceforth long known only as Ælia; and coins bearing in their inscription the name COL. AEL. CAP. are still extant from the time of Adrian to Hostilian about A. D. 250. The name Jerusalem went out of use; and was indeed to such a degree forgotten, that when a martyr at Caesarea under Maximin mentioned Jerusalem as his birth-place, (meaning the heavenly city,) the Roman governor Firmilianus inquired, What city it was and where it lay 25 In the days of Constantine the ancient name became again more current; though that of Ælia still remained in use; as is shown by the writings of Eusebius and Jerome. Even so late as A. D. 536, the name of Ælia appears in the acts of a synod held in Jerusalem itself; and it afterwards

1) Dio Cass. LXIX. 12, 'Es dè τὰ Ἱεροσόλυμα πόλιν αὐτοῦ ἀντὶ τῆς κατασκαφείσης οικίσαντος, ἣν καὶ Αἰλίαν Καπιτωλίναν ὠνόμασε, καὶ ἐς τὸν τοῦ ναοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ τό που, ναὸν τῷ Διὶ ἕτερον ἀντεγεί garros z. r. λ. Euseb. Hist. Ecc. iv.6. Hieron. Comm. in Esai. ii. 8, "Ubi quondam erat templum et religio Dei, ibi Hadriani statua et Jovis idolum collocatum est." See also above, Vol. I. p. 437.

2) Hieron. Ep. 49, ad Paulin. ed. Mart. Tom. IV. ii. p. 564. Sozomen, H. E. II. 1.

3) See above, Vol. I. pp. 454, 467. VOL. II.

2

p.

4) Münter Jüdischer Krieg, etc. 94. The coins of Elia are found in Rasche's Lexicon Tom. I, and the first Supplement. Sestini Descript. Numor. vet. p. 544. Mionnet Médailles Ant. Tom. V. p. 516, seq. 5) Euseb. de Martyrib. Palaestinae, c. 11.

6) Particularly in their specifications of the distances of places from this city; see the Onomast. art. Bethel, and elsewhere.

7)" In Colonia Elia metropoli, sive Hierosolymis;" Harduin. Concil. II. p. 1412. Labbe Concil. V. p. 275.

passed over also to the Muhammedans, by whom it was long retained.'

The history of Jerusalem from the time of Adrian until Constantine, presents little more than a blank. The Christians, who, as individuals or perhaps communities, had suffered so greatly from the atrocities of Barcochba and his followers, had become more distinctly separated from the Jews; and while the latter (as we have seen) were now prohibited on pain of death even from approaching Jerusalem, the latter would seem to have resided in it without special molestation from the Romans. At this period probably, if ever, the former church of Jerusalem, which as a body is said to have withdrawn before the siege by Titus to Pella beyond the Jordan, re-established itself in the new city; and in order to lay aside as far as possible every appearance of a Jewish character, elected its bishop Marcus and his successors from among the Gentile converts.3 Between Marcus and Macarius in the time of Constantine, twenty-three bishops are enumerated; respecting whom, however, little is known. Narcissus, in the beginning of the third century, under Severus, is related to have wrought miracles; and Alexander, his successor, founded a library in Jerusalem, which was still extant in the days of Eusebius, nearly a century later. Yet both these bishops, as well as other Christians, were

1) Eutychius relates that the name Elia was in use among the Arabs in his day; Annales I. p. 354. It is mentioned also by Edrisi, ed. Jaub. p. 341; by Ibn el-Wardi in Abulf. Syr. ed. Köhler, p. 179; and also by Mejr ed-Din so late as A. D. 1495; Fundgr. des Orients, II. p. 136. It is found likewise in Adamnanus, about A. D. 697; de Locis Sanct. I. 21.

2) Euseb. H. E. III. 5.

Epi

exposed to persecutions on account of their faith; and the Christian church existed in Jerusalem, as elsewhere, only by sufferance.

The severe prohibition against the Jews appears not to have been relaxed during all this interval of nearly two centuries; and they continued to be shut out from the land of their fathers, and deprived even of the common rights of strangers upon its soil. In the days of Constantine they were first allowed again to approach the Holy City; and at last, to enter it once a year, in order to wail over the ruins of their ancient sanctuary.2

Meantime the influence and the limits of Christianity were continually increased and extended, as well in Palestine itself as in other parts of the Roman empire. The hearts of Christians in other lands yearned to behold the sacred city, and the scenes of so many great events and hallowed recollections; and in that age of pilgrimages, the Holy Land did not of course remain unvisited. Even early in the third century, two pilgrimages of this kind are recorded; one that of Alexander, then bishop in Cappadocia, who became the successor of Narcissus in the see of Jerusalem ;3 and the other, that of a female mentioned in a letter to Cyprian. In the beginning of the fourth century, these journies had become more common; for Eusebius, writing about A. D. 315, speaks of Christians who came up to Jerusalem from all the regions of the earth; partly to behold the accomplishment of pro

1) Tertull. c. Judaeos, c. 15. Apol. c. 21, "quibus [Judaeis] nec advenarum jure terram patriam saltem vestigio salutare conceditur." Euseb. Demonstr. Evang. VIII. 18, as quoted above on p. 6. Note 3. The remark in the text applies of course only to Judea; the Jews continued to reside in Galilee in great numbers.

2) See above, Vol. I. pp. 349351. Itin. Hieros. p. 591. ed. Wesseling. Hieron. Comm. in Sophon. i. 15.

3) Euseb. H. E. VI. 11, thy noρείαν ἐπὶ τὰ Ἱεροσόλυμα εὐχῆς καὶ τῶν τόπων ἱστορίας ἕνεκεν πεποιημένον.

4) Cyprian. Epist. 75.-Cyprian died A. D. 258.

phecy in the conquest and destruction of the city; and partly to pay their adorations on the Mount of Olives where Jesus ascended, and at the cave in Bethlehem where he was born.'

In the conversion of Constantine, Christianity obtained a worldly triumph, and became thenceforth the public religion of the state. The difficulties which had formerly beset the way of pilgrims to the Holy City, were now removed. The number of the pilgrims increased; and an example of high influence was set by Helena, the mother of the emperor. At the age of nearly fourscore years, but with a youthful spirit, she repaired in person to Palestine in the year 326, to visit the holy places, and render thanks to God for the prosperity of her son and family. Having paid her adorations at the supposed places of the nativity and ascension, and being sustained by the munificence of her son, she caused splendid churches to be erected on those spots, viz. in Bethlehem and on the Mount of Olives; which were afterwards still further adorned by sumptuous presents from Constantine himself. She returned to Constantinople; and died there at the age of eighty, about the year 327 or 328.3

In the mean time, after the transactions connected with the council of Nicea, as Eusebius informs us, the emperor Constantine (not without a divine admonition) became desirous of performing a glorious work in Palestine, by beautifying and rendering sacred the place of the resurrection of our Lord. For hitherto, according to the same writer, impious men, or rather the whole race of demons through their instrumentality, had used every effort to deliver over that illustrious monument of immortality to darkness and oblivion.

1) Euseb. Demonstr. Evang. VI. 16. VII. 4.

2) Euseb. Vit. Const. III. 42, 43.

3) Ibid. III. 46. Tillemont Mémoires pour servir à l'Hist. Eccl. Tom. VII. p. 16.