rd-bearer of the Son of the Star. Of
him also wondrous stories were told. The first expedition of Barcochab
was to the ruins of Jerusalem, where a rude town had sprung up. Here he
openly assumed the title of king. But he and his followers avoided a
battle in the open field. On the arrival of the famous Julius Severus to
take command of the Roman forces, the rebel Jews were in possession of
fifty of the strongest castles and nearly a thousand villages. Severus
attacked the strongholds in detail, reducing them by famine, and
gradually brought the war to a close.

Over half a million Jews perished during the struggle, and the whole of
Judea was a desert in which wolves and hyenas howled through the streets
of the desolate cities. Hadrian established a new city on the site of
Jerusalem, which he called AElia Capitolina, and peopled with a colony of
foreigners. An edict was issued prohibiting any Jew from entering the
new city on pain of death, and the more effectually to enforce the
edict, the image of a swine was placed over the gate leading to
Bethlehem.

_II.--Judaism and Christianity_

For the fourth time the Jewish people seemed on the brink of
extermination. Nebuchadrezzar, Antiochus, Titus, and Hadrian had
successively exerted their utmost power to extinguish their existence as
a separate people. Yet in less than sixty years after the war under
Hadrian, before the close of the second century after Christ, the Jews
present the extraordinary spectacle of two separate and regularly
organised communities--one under the Patriarch of Tiberias,
comprehending all of Israelitish descent who inhabited the Roman Empire;
the other under the Prince of the Captivity, to whom all the eastern
Jews paid allegiance. By the mild temper of Antoninus Pius, the Jews
were restored to their ancient privileges. Though still forbidden to
enter Jerusalem, they were permitted to acquire the freedom of Rome, to
establish many settlements in Italy, and to enjoy municipal honours.

This gentle treatment assuaged the stern temper of the race. Awakened
from their dream of prophecy and conquest, they assumed the behaviour of
peaceable and industrious subjects. The worship of the synagogue became
the great bond of racial union, and through centuries held the scattered
nation in the closest uniformity.

The middle of the third century beheld all Israel incorporated into
their two communities, under their patriarch and their caliphate. The
Res