neighbourhood of the House itself; these were set on fire by a Roman soldier without orders, and the flames quickly spread to all the chambers. Titus, in vain, commanded his troops to extinguish them; his voice was drowned in the tumult; the Jews, with loud shrieks, fought furiously in defence of the last bulwark of their nationality; but it was now too late; the sacred building was in a blaze, and its obstinate and heroic defenders perished beneath the ruins. After the Temple had fallen, Titus tried to induce John and Simon, who had retreated into the Upper city, to submit, and a parley was held at the bridge by the Xystus[262]. These proud and blood-thirsty tyrants would not hearken to him; the siege was carried on, and before long the whole upper city was in his power. He ordered the Temple and the rest of Jerusalem to be levelled with the ground, leaving only some of the western fortifications to mark its former magnificence[263]. Thus ended the political existence of the Jewish race. The Christians came back from Pella to Jerusalem soon after its destruction, and some of the Jews returned there to mourn over its sacred ashes; so that the place was not wholly deserted even in the darkest days of Trajan's persecution. Therefore tradition, as well as the heaps of ruins, pointed out the site of the Sanctuary to Hadrian, when, in order to humiliate the Jews and extinguish every hope of its restoration, he built thereupon a temple to Jupiter Capitolinus. When the idol temples were destroyed by Constantine the Great A.D. 332, this too was demolished; but he took no care of Moriah, and allowed two statues of Hadrian to remain there; neither did he attempt to clear it of ruins, nor prevent its becoming a receptacle for rubbish; as if he wished every trace of the departed glory of the nation to disappear. However, the wretched descendants of David visited the place in solitude, to anoint with oil and bedew with tears the 'perforated stone,' which they considered a relic of their Sanctuary[264]. The accession of Julian the Apostate renewed the hopes of the Jews. Wishing to prove the words of Scripture[265] false, he determined to rebuild the Temple; and supplied the necessary funds, giving the business in charge to Alypius of Antioch, Governor of Great Britain. The Jews came in crowds to take part in the work, but their attempts to lay the foundations were frustrated by flames, which issued from the excavations with such peals of thunder, that the workmen fled affrighted, mistaking in their ignorance a natural phenomenon for a miracle[266]. The Emperor Justinian was the first to begin to clear away some of the ruins from Moriah, A.D. 527. He endeavoured to identify the places mentioned in the Gospels, and ordered a basilica to be erected on the south side dedicated to the Presentation of the Virgin, not far from the site of the Temple[267]. Some buildings were also constructed on the north side, and perhaps on the east, as I will presently shew.