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Epilogue
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413 Epilogue By the middle of the first century C.E., on the eve of its destruction, Jerusalem reached the peak of its physical growth and religious status. Over the six hundred years of the Second Temple period, the city had outgrown its modest site on the eastern ridge, expanding westward and northward; it increased fifteenfold, having at first occupied an area of some 30 acres and eventually encompassing approximately 450 acres. Whereas Jerusalem's population had numbered approximately five thousand at the beginning of this era, it now had a total of sixty to seventy thousand permanent residents. Once serving as the center of a small, isolated district on the western fringes of the Persian Empire, Jerusalem had become the capital of an expanded Judaea, stretching from the Galilee to the northern Negev, and from the Mediterranean to the Transjordanian region. From the capital of a provincial population numbering fifty to one hundred thousand inhabitants, it now assumed the role of a spiritual center for some four to eight million Jews living in the Roman Empire (as well as in Babylonia), a number that may have made up almost 10 percent of the empire's total population. As has been repeatedly emphasized throughout this book, Jerusalem's centrality and sanctity in the generations leading up to 70 C.E. were the result of both internal and external developments. At the beginning of the Second Temple period , the city's status was enhanced because Cyrus and his successors recognized it as a "temple-city." The disappearance of the prophets and the monarchical line left the high priesthood as the central religious and political force in the city. Thus it is not coincidental that throughout the ensuing centuries, many laws and customs associated with the Temple crystallized or became operative on a large scale, endowing the city and Temple with an ever-growing religious status: the division of the priests into twenty-four courses, each serving in the Temple twice a year; 414 the Second TIthe intended solely for use in Jerusalem; the offering of fIrSt fruits annually and the first produce of new trees and vines in the fourth year after planting; the half-sheqel contribution; and, of course, the regular pilgrimages. As a result, Jerusalem became the major focus ofJewish life throughout Judaea. All religious groupings and sects were represented in the city at some pointPharisees , Christians, Sadducees, Essenes, revolutionaries, false prophets, and others. The growing Jerusalem population included those born in the city, those who moved there from other parts of Judaea or the Diaspora, and new converts; the languages they spoke were equally diverse-Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and possibly even Latin. On the pilgrimage festivals, the city served as a veritable sacred point (omphalos, navel of the world) for Jews flocking there from all parts of the world. This increased status and centrality was in large part due to the efforts of the Hasmoneans and Herod, who made Jerusalem the capital of their expanded kingdoms. It was only from Herod's time onward, however, that both city and Temple acquired their greatest prominence. Besides his own ambitious personal agenda, Herod was aided by two additional factors: the emergence of an extensive , well-established, and powerful Diaspora that the king sought to link as closely as possible to his city and Temple; and the creation of the pax Romana under Augustus that provided the stability and prosperity to enable the city to realize its full potential. Herod's many efforts to beautify and modernize Jerusalem and its Temple bore fruit as they became well known throughout the empire and were looked on by Jews everywhere as their spiritual and national home. Philo noted that every Jew born in the Diaspora had two homelands, the city of his or her birth and Jerusalem.1 Ironically, Jerusalem was destroyed precisely at the moment when it had reached its zenith. This coincidence had all the makings of a Greek tragedy. According to the Greeks, only someone who had reached a high and exalted position could truly experience tragedy; the greater the fall, the greater the magnitude of the tragedy. First-century Jerusalem was at the height ofits influence and prestige, and it was at this point that the city was enveloped in turmoil, gradually descending into anarchy. The internal crisis was compounded by a series of confrontations with the Roman authorities and the neighboring pagan popUlation, which resulted in a direct armed conflict with the greatest military power of the time...