Under the Christian Emperors

Under the Christian Emperors.

With the advent of Constantine the Great the city became thoroughly Christian. In 336 the Church of the Anastasis was built over the Holy Sepulcher, and the Pool of Siloam was surrounded by a portico. There is a tradition that the emperor Julian, called "the Apostate," in 362 gave the Jews, of whom Rabbi Hillel was nasi, permission to rebuild the Temple, but that the plan was not carried out because of an explosion (Socrates, "Hist. Eccl." iii. 20; see Hanauer in "P. E. F. S." 1902, p. 389). Valentinian commenced to rebuild the walls, but died before the work was accomplished. In 450the empress Eudoxia, widow of Theodosius II., restored them, enclosing within them the Pool of Siloam. Under the Council of Chalcedon (451) Jerusalem became an independent patriarchate. Additional Christian buildings were erected by Justinian in 532. In 614 the Persian Chosroes II. attacked Jerusalem. He is reported by the "Chronicon Paschale" to have been aided by 24,000 Jews ("P. E. F. S." 1898, p. 36). At the time of the emperor Maurice there were several earthquakes in Palestine; one of these caused the destruction of the building which had been erected on the site of the Temple. It is said that Jews were sent to rebuild it. In 629 Heraclius made peace with Siroes, the son of Chosroes, and reentered the city. He renewed the edict prohibiting the Jews from dwelling in Jerusalem. In 637 Omar and the Arabs appeared before Jerusalem, and the city came under the power of the Moslems. Omar erected a wooden mosque west of the Rock, and ordered that no new churches were to be built.

Jerusalem