Thus sang an unknown Jewish poet of Alexandria, venting his spleen against the Greeks in Greek verse. But the dreamers were rudely awakened. The Emperor was not slow to perceive that the restoration of the Temple would mean a perpetuation of the Jewish problem. He, therefore, qualified his original concession by terms which were not acceptable to the Jews. Their bitter disenchantment and their hatred of Hadrian were concealed for a while. ♦130 A.D.♦ The Emperor visited Palestine and endeavoured to conciliate the Jews by bringing them into closer contact with the Pagans. But he unfortunately adopted towards that end the very means calculated to defeat it. He proposed to rebuild Jerusalem on a plan which the Jews regarded as a deliberate desecration. He did not understand that what the nation wanted was not fusion with the foreigners but rigid separation from them. Again the Jews concealed their feelings; and while the deluded Emperor wrote to the Senate at home praising the peaceful disposition and loyalty of this much-maligned people, they were preparing for a fresh revolt. Arms were manufactured and hidden in underground passages, secret means of communication were established, and Hadrian had scarcely turned his back on Jerusalem when the Jews once more “lifted themselves up to establish a vision.” ♦132 A.D.♦ The rebellion was headed by Bar-Cochba, in whom the enthusiastic mob recognised the prophesied Messiah and round whose standard they rallied in force sufficient to defy the Imperial legions for two years. The Jewish Christians, who refused to recognise the new Messiah and to take part in the holy war, were remorselessly persecuted, and the rebellion blazed from one end of the country to the other. However, Hadrian’s army, under the able command of Julius Severus and of the Emperor himself, prevailed in the end. ♦135 A.D.♦ Bar-Cochba was defeated, and the last sparks of the insurrection were extinguished beneath mountains of corpses. It is reckoned (though these figures are scarcely trustworthy) that no fewer than five hundred and eighty thousand Jews succumbed to the sword during the war, in addition to an unknown multitude starved or burnt to death. Palestine was turned into a wilderness. All the fortresses were demolished, and nearly one thousand towns and villages lay in ashes. The destruction of the Jewish State, commenced by Titus, was accomplished by Hadrian. The spot upon which the proud Temple had once stood was now defiled by the plough, and all the holy sites were devoted to idols. The Samaritans shared the ruin of their secular enemies. Mount Gerizim also was polluted by a shrine to Jupiter, while on Mount Golgotha, where a century before the awful crime had been committed, a fane was dedicated to the Goddess of Lust. A pagan colony of Phoenician and Syrian soldiers, who had served their time, occupied part of Jerusalem, the very name of which was soon forgotten in that of Aelia Capitolina. Judaism was interdicted under