One part of the people were left
as food for the wild beasts of the field, whilst some were kept alive to
grace the triumph of the victor; but that which above all moved the grief
of the Israelites, was the destruction of that temple which had been
erected by their own monarchs at so great an expense. Its glory has been
described by the author already named; I find the description among my
papers, and send it to you. You will weep as a true Israelite, and compare
our former greatness with the degraded state to which the blindness and
errors of our Elders have reduced us.
Under Hadrian, the Jews were once more excited to a contest.[7] Bar Cochef
announced himself as the Messias, but in the sequel 580,000 of our nation
were destroyed, and the name of Jerusalem was changed for that of Elia.
The emperor Julian, usually called the Apostate, in his ambition for
future fame, ordered the Temple of Solomon to be rebuilt. But the fathers
of the Christian Church, as well as the contemporary author Ammianus
Marcellinus, assert that a fire, which burst forth from the ground,
suspended the operation at its commencement.
[7] About fifty years after the destruction of Jerusalem, when the
great body of the Jews held the opinion that the time for the
appearance of their Messias had arrived, there arose this man,
who announced himself in that character, and called himself
Bar Cochef, or the "Son of a Star." He was acknowledged by
numbers of his people, who became his followers, declared him
their king, and made war upon the Romans, many of whom were
destroyed, both in Greece and in Africa.
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