[318] See Matt. xxvii, 60, 66; Mark xv. 46; Luke xxiv. 2; John xx. 1, 12. Herr K. Schick stated that when this tomb was excavated, a slab was found in it, on which was a Greek cross, with the words _Thêkê Diapherous(a)_, or “a private sepulchre.” The tomb is very roughly cut, and may have been hewn as late as the fifth century A. D., unless it was re-used. [319] Origen, “Catena” (see Sir C. Wilson’s article, _Pal. Expl. Fund Quarterly_, January, 1902, p. 71): “As regards the Place of a Skull, Hebrew tradition has come down to us that Adam’s body was buried there.” Jerome, on Matt. xxvii., says that Adam was buried at Hebron (Reland, “Pal.,” ii. p. 709). [320] Tal. Bab., _Erubin_, 53 _a_. CHAPTER VIII THE FALL OF JERUSALEM Only forty years after the day of the Crucifixion the blood of the rejected Messiah came on the heads of those who had invoked it on themselves and on their children; and the soldiers of Titus nailed the Jewish deserters to crosses outside the city to the north, till “room was wanting for the crosses and crosses for the bodies.”[321] We may briefly examine the course of events that led to the final catastrophe. The death of Herod the Great was the signal for revolt against Rome.[322] Archelaus and Antipas sailed at once for the imperial city, to urge their claims before Augustus. In their absence Sabinus acted as Cæsar’s procurator, under Varus the governor of Syria. He appears to have exacted money, and to have otherwise oppressed the Jews, and at the Feast of Pentecost--about the middle of May--the city was filled with pilgrims from Jericho, Galilee, and beyond Jordan, and with Idumæans from the south. Their indignation at injuries inflicted by Sabinus led to revolt, and while some held the west cloister of the Temple, and others the “Hippodrome” (perhaps the Xystos) towards the south, a third band besieged the Romans in Herod’s palace on the west side of the Upper City. Sabinus, from the top of the Phasaelus tower, directed a sally, and drove the rebels back to the Temple. The west cloister was set on fire, and the soldiers plundered the Temple treasure; but the siege closed in again, and the Jews attempted to undermine the palace walls. Varus hastened to march on Palestine, which was reduced to anarchy, and he advanced on Samaria, set fire to Emmaus Nicopolis, and finally reached Jerusalem, reinforced by Arab auxiliaries sent by Ḥârith, king of Petra. The Jerusalem Jews excused themselves before him, and the strangers abandoned the siege and dispersed. Sabinus, fearing to meet his superior, stole away to the seaside, probably to Cæsarea; the revolt was quelled, and two thousand of the rebels were seized and crucified. Varus returned to Antioch, leaving a legion at Jerusalem, and pacified the Jews by allowing them to send an embassy to Rome, petitioning that they might be permitted to live according to their own law. Archelaus was given the government of