Hadrian Built a Temple of Jupiter on on the Site of the Second Temple
Initially seemingly tolerant to the Jews, Publius Aelius Hadrianus, better known as Hadrian, was appointed Roman Emperor in 117 CE. Affected by antisemitic external sources and a Hellenist himself, Hadrian quickly pivoted and planned to transform Jerusalem into a pagan city. He started to build a temple to Jupiter in 130 CE in the place where the Jewish Temple once stood.
Historian Cassius Dio, in Roman History 69.12 writes:
“At Jerusalem he founded a city in place of the one which had been razed to the ground, naming it Aelia Capitolina…on the site of the temple of the (Jewish) god he raised a new temple to Jupiter.”
Bronze Statue of Hadrian
Photo: Carole Raddato from FRANKFURT, Germany, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Overview
Cassius Dio, Roman History 69.12
“At Jerusalem he [Hadrian] founded a city in place of the one which had been razed to the ground, naming it Aelia Capitolina
…on the site of the temple of the (Jewish) god he raised a new temple to Jupiter.”
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