4. _The Period of Restoration_ (B.C. 587-70 A.D.). After lying desolate for 50 years, the city was again occupied under Zerubbabel, by the decree of Cyrus, B.C. 536. For nearly a century it remained unwalled and was thinly inhabited, until its wall was rebuilt by Nehemiah, B.C. 445. Thenceforward it grew rapidly, and soon became again the metropolis as well as the capital of the Jewish state. Alexander the Great visited it, B.C. 332, and gave the Jews certain privileges in his empire. The city was taken by Ptolemy Soter, king of Egypt, B.C. 320, because the Jews would not fight on the Sabbath. In B.C. 203 it was taken by Antiochus, the king of Syria, and, after a revolt, again by his son, Antiochus Epiphanes, in B.C. 170 and B.C. 168. The latter capture was followed by a bitter persecution of the Jewish religion, in which thousands of lives were sacrificed. But a deliverer arose, in the family of the priest Mattathias, whose son, Judas Maccabeus, rescued the city and restored the worship in the Temple. Under the Maccabean princes Jerusalem was generally prosperous, though with occasional reverses. The Romans first besieged and took the city under Pompey, B.C. 65. Herod the Great beautified the city, erected many buildings, and rebuilt the Temple throughout. But the most terrible of all scenes in Jerusalem's annals, were those which took place in the revolt of the Jews against the Roman empire, and the destruction of the city by Titus, A.D. 70. For years it was the arena of riot, of the bloody strife of factions, and of massacre, which scarcely ceased during the final siege. At last the city and Temple were taken by Titus, demolished and burned, and for a second time Jerusalem was left an utter desolation.