From Hasmonean to Roman Rule. The Maccabean revolt eventually lead to the “gradual flaking away of the Seleucid kingdom” (Eiddon, Hellenistic World, 216). Cities throughout the Near East were bucking the occupying government. An autonomous Jewish nation emerged that redeveloped its identity, and flourished in the process. The emerging Hasmonean Dynasty (152–63 bc) witnessed a dramatic increase in population and size, but perhaps most significant was the sociopolitical demographic of Jerusalem.

The Hasmonean Dynasty was led by a succession of high priests, beginning with Jonathan and Simon Maccabeus, the brothers of Judas. Simon tore down Antiochus’ citadel, and both the Upper and Lower cities—the western and eastern hills—of Jerusalem were enclosed by new walls. The city was expanded, and a bridge was constructed between the Upper and Lower cities, over the Tyropoeon valley.

In 63 bc, however, the Roman general Pompey marched on Jerusalem and after three months of besieging the city, he captured it. Contrary to the measures of Antiochus IV, Pompey appears to have wanted to inaugurate a Roman occupation of the city without any religious interference. According to Josephus, Pompey took nothing from the temple, and actually required that the Jews in the city bring “what offerings the law required to God” (Josephus, Antiquities 14.69–76). The high priest at the time, Hyrcanus II, was accommodating to Pompey and was retained as high priest.

From 37–4 bc Herod the Great ruled Judaea as a Roman client-king, or vassal. Under Herod, much of the damage to Jerusalem inflicted through the Maccabean revolts was nearly forgotten in a new era of prosperity and architectural advance (Davies, Judaism, 17). The Upper City developed into an affluent area for the “bourgeois” of ancient Jerusalem, while the lower classes were relegated to the commerce district in the Lower City. Herod’s expansion, building projects, and ostentatious renovations of the temple cemented his reputation as ruler of Judaea (Levine, Jerusalem, 319–35).

While the temple of Ezra, Zerubbabel, and the Maccabees was still standing, Herod, who had other palaces in Masada, Caesarea, and Tiberias, felt that Jerusalem would suit his architectural magnum opus (Rocca, Herod’s Judaea, 119–22). The new temple took nearly 80 years to complete (20 bc—63 CE), though its bulk was finished rapidly, owing to the extensive labor that Herod employed (compare Rocca, Herod’s Judaea, 212–13; Antiquities 15.421). The Herodian temple was of breathtaking proportions: 446 m in length and 296 m in width. To support its size, the temple platform had to be doubled in size. Only one of the four retaining walls remains—the Western Wall is a highly significant Jewish site. In present-day Jerusalem, the Dome of the Rock (Arabic, “Haram esh-Sharif,” the “Noble Sanctuary”) sits atop the Temple Mount of Herod’s building and very little of Herod’s Temple is left (Josephus, Antiquities 15.412).

According to Josephus, three walls enclosed the city of Jerusalem in Herod’s time. An inner, strongly fortified wall contained 60 towers and was built in roughly 100 bc. This surrounded the majority of the Old City, save for a small section just south of the Temple Mount (Josephus, Jewish War 5.158). A second, smaller wall, probably dating to either the Hasmonean or Herodian eras, fortified the north side of the eastern hill and had only 14 towers (Jewish War 5.158). In 1972, Ute Lux discovered a quarry adjacent to the proposed location of this wall, suggesting that the quarry acted as a moat, also fortifying the city’s northern defenses (Lux, “Vorläufiger Bericht”). The age and location of the third wall is speculative—very little of it remains. This third wall may have been, like the second, a northern fortification of the eastern hill, dating to the Herodian era (Shanks, “Jerusalem Wall”).

Josephus mentions the third wall as an attempt by Herod Agrippa to enclose the sprawling, exposed population. It had some 90 towers. Were the wall to be completed as magnificently as it began, Josephus writes, it would have made the Old City impregnable, and would have aroused suspicion of revolt by Claudius Caesar. So the wall was left to be “hurriedly erected by the Jews” (Jewish War 5.155).