Jews

=== Second Temple period ===
{{further|Second Temple period|Jewish–Roman wars}}
According to the [[Book of Ezra]], the Persian [[Cyrus the Great]] ended the [[Babylonian exile]] in 538 BCE,<ref name="rennert">{{cite web|url=http://www.biu.ac.il/js/rennert/history_4.html |title=Second Temple Period (538 BCE. to 70 CE) Persian Rule |publisher=Biu.ac.il |access-date=15 March 2014}}</ref> the year after he captured Babylon.<ref>''Harper's Bible Dictionary'', ed. by Achtemeier, etc., Harper & Row, San Francisco, 1985, p. 103</ref> The exile ended with the return under [[Zerubbabel]] the Prince (so called because he was a descendant of the royal line of [[David]]) and Joshua the Priest (a descendant of the line of the former [[High Priest of Israel|High Priests of the Temple]]) and their construction of the [[Second Temple]] circa 521–516 BCE.<ref name="rennert" /> As part of the [[Achaemenid Empire|Persian Empire]], the former Kingdom of Judah became the province of Judah (''[[Yehud Medinata]]'')<ref>Yehud being the Aramaic equivalent of the Hebrew Yehuda, or "Judah", and "medinata" the word for province</ref> with different borders, covering a smaller territory.<ref name="Grabbe355">{{cite book |last=Grabbe |first=Lester L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-MnE5T_0RbMC&q=gave+the+Jews+permission+to+return+to+Yehud+province+and+to+rebuild+the&pg=PA355 |title=A History of the Jews and Judaism in the Second Temple Period: Yehud – A History of the Persian Province of Judah v. 1 |publisher=T & T Clark |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-567-08998-4 |page=355}}</ref> The population of the province was greatly reduced from that of the kingdom, archaeological surveys showing a population of around 30,000 people in the 5th to 4th centuries BCE.<ref name="Finkelstein" />{{rp|308}}

Judea was under control of the [[Achaemenid Empire|Achaemenids]] until the fall of their empire in c. 333 BCE to [[Alexander the Great]]. After several centuries under foreign imperial rule, the [[Maccabean Revolt]] against the [[Seleucid Empire]] resulted in an independent [[Hasmonean dynasty|Hasmonean kingdom]], under which the Jews once again enjoyed political independence for a period spanning from 110 to 63 BCE.<ref name="BangScheidel2013">{{cite book |author1=Peter Fibiger Bang |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GCj09AmtvvwC&pg=PAPA184 |title=The Oxford Handbook of the State in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean |author2=Walter Scheidel |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-19-518831-8 |pages=184–187 |access-date=16 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409160404/https://books.google.com/books?id=GCj09AmtvvwC&pg=PAPA184 |archive-date=9 April 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref> The [[Idumeans]], whom the Hasmoneans conquered, were influential in shaping Jewish society and religion. Most assimilated and intermarried with native Judeans and later, founded the [[Herodian dynasty]]. <ref name=":22">{{Cite journal |last=Levin |first=Yigal |date=2020-09-24 |title=The Religion of Idumea and Its Relationship to Early Judaism |journal=Religions |volume=11 |issue=10 |pages=487 |doi=10.3390/rel11100487 |issn=2077-1444 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Marshak |first=Adam Kolman |date=2012-01-01 |title=Rise of the Idumeans: Ethnicity and Politics in Herod's Judea |url=https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789004218512/B9789004218512_008.xml |journal=Jewish Identity and Politics Between the Maccabees and Bar Kokhba |language=en |pages=117–129 |doi=10.1163/9789004218512_008 |isbn=9789004218512}}</ref><ref>[[Strabo]], ''Geography'' Bk.16.2.34</ref>In 63 BCE, Judea was conquered by the Romans. From 37 BCE to 6 CE, the Romans allowed the Jews to maintain some degree of independence by preserving the Herodian government. However, Judea eventually came directly under Roman control and was incorporated into the [[Roman Empire]] as the [[Judaea (Roman province)|province of Judaea]].<ref>{{cite book |author1=Peter Fibiger Bang |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GCj09AmtvvwC&pg=PA184 |title=The Oxford Handbook of the State in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean |author2=Walter Scheidel |publisher=OUP USA |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-19-518831-8 |pages=184–87}}</ref><ref name="Malamat1976">{{cite book |author=Abraham Malamat |url={{Google books|2kSovzudhFUC|page=PA223|keywords=|text=|plainurl=yes}} |title=A History of the Jewish People |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1976 |isbn=978-0-674-39731-6 |pages=223–239}}</ref>

The [[Jewish–Roman wars]], a series of unsuccessful revolts against Roman rule during the first and second centuries CE, had significant and disastrous consequences for the Jewish population of [[Judaea (Roman province)|Judaea]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Zissu |first=Boaz |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/988856967 |title=Jews and Christians in the First and Second Centuries: The Interbellum 70‒132 CE |date=2018 |others=Joshua Schwartz, Peter J. Tomson |isbn=978-90-04-34986-5 |pages=19 |chapter=Interbellum Judea 70-132 CE: An Archaeological Perspective |publisher=Brill |oclc=988856967}}</ref><ref name="FahlbuschBromiley2005">{{cite book |author1=Erwin Fahlbusch |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C5V7oyy69zgC&pg=PAPA15 |title=The Encyclopedia of Christianity |author2=Geoffrey William Bromiley |publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-8028-2416-5 |pages=15– |access-date=16 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409160412/https://books.google.com/books?id=C5V7oyy69zgC&pg=PAPA15 |archive-date=9 April 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref> The [[First Jewish–Roman War|First Jewish-Roman War]] (66–73 CE) culminated in the [[Siege of Jerusalem (70 CE)|destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple]]. The severely reduced Jewish population of Judaea was denied any kind of political self-government.<ref name="AHJ-GM">{{Cite book |last=Goodman |first=Martin |title=A History of Judaism |date=2018 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-18127-1 |location=Princeton Oxford |pages=21, 232}}</ref> A few generations later, the [[Bar Kokhba revolt]] (132–136 CE) erupted, and its brutal suppression by the Romans led to the depopulation of [[Judea]]. Following the revolt, Jews were forbidden from residing in the vicinity of Jerusalem, and the Jewish demographic center in [[Judaea (Roman province)|Judaea]] shifted to [[Galilee]].<ref name="Mor, M. 2016. P471">Mor, M. ''The Second Jewish Revolt: The Bar Kokhba War, 132–136 CE''. Brill, 2016. P471/</ref><ref name="raviv2021">{{Cite journal |last1=Raviv |first1=Dvir |last2=Ben David |first2=Chaim |date=27 May 2021 |title=Cassius Dio's figures for the demographic consequences of the Bar Kokhba War: Exaggeration or reliable account? |journal=Journal of Roman Archaeology |language=en |volume=34 |issue=2 |pages=585–607 |doi=10.1017/S1047759421000271 |issn=1047-7594 |s2cid=236389017 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>Powell, ''The Bar Kokhba War AD 132-136'', Osprey Publishing, Oxford, ç2017, p.80</ref> Similar upheavals affected the Jewish communities of the empire's south-eastern provinces, when a significant uprising known as the [[Kitos War]] (115–117 CE) resulted in the complete disappearance of the influential Jewish community of Egypt and [[Alexandria]].<ref name="AHJ-GM" />
[[File:Iudaea_capta_reverse_of_Vespasian_sestertius.jpg|thumb|A Roman coin inscribed ''[[Judaea Capta coinage|Ivdaea Capta]],'' or "captive Judea" (71 CE), representing Judea as a seated mourning woman (right), and a Jewish captive with hands tied (left)]]The destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE brought profound changes to Judaism. With the Temple's central place in Jewish worship gone, religious practices shifted towards [[Jewish prayer|prayer]], [[Torah study]] (including [[Oral Torah]]), and communal gatherings in [[synagogue]]s. Judaism also lost much of its [[sectarian]] nature.<ref name="Magness">{{cite book |author=Jodi Magness |title=Was 70 CE a Watershed in Jewish History?: On Jews and Judaism before and after the Destruction of the Second Temple |publisher=Brill |year=2011 |isbn=978-90-04-21744-7 |editor1=Daniel R. Schwartz |chapter=Sectarianism before and after 70 CE |editor2=Zeev Weiss |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VecxAQAAQBAJ&q=diaspora+70+ce&pg=PA189}}</ref>{{rp|69}} Two of the three main sects that flourished during the late Second Temple period, namely the [[Sadducees]] and [[Essenes]], eventually disappeared, while [[Pharisees|Pharisaic]] beliefs became the foundational, liturgical, and ritualistic basis of [[Rabbinic Judaism]], which emerged as the prevailing form of Judaism since late antiquity.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last=Karesh |first=Sara E. |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1162305378 |title=Encyclopedia of Judaism |year=2006 |publisher=Facts On File |isbn=978-1-78785-171-9 |oclc=1162305378 |quote=Until the modern period, the destruction of the Temple was the most cataclysmic moment in the history of the Jewish people. Without the Temple, the Sadducees no longer had any claim to authority, and they faded away. The sage Yochanan ben Zakkai, with permission from Rome, set up the outpost of Yavneh to continue develop of Pharisaic, or rabbinic, Judaism.}}</ref>