Jerusalem 135 CE: Hadrian's City and the Birth of Aelia Capitolina

In 135 CE, the Roman emperor Hadrian completed the destruction of Jerusalem, refounding it as Aelia Capitolina, a pagan colony built over the ruins of the Jewish capital. This episode explores the brutal aftermath of the Bar Kokhba revolt—the ethnic cleansing of Jews from the city, the construction of a temple to Jupiter on the Temple Mount, and the symbols and laws that reshaped the landscape. We follow the archaeological traces of Hadrian's city: the Roman cardo, the gate complex now known as Damascus Gate, and the statues and inscriptions that proclaimed Roman dominance. We also examine how early Christian sources, like Eusebius and the Bordeaux Pilgrim, described the city in the centuries after, and how the memory of Aelia Capitolina became a foundational layer for later Byzantine and Islamic Jerusalem. This is a story of erasure and reinvention, of how a defeated people's holy city was remade as a symbol of imperial power.

#Jerusalem #AeliaCapitolina #Hadrian #BarKokhba #RomanEmpire #SecondJewishRevolt #TempleMount #Eusebius #BordeauxPilgrim #Cardo #DamascusGate #RomanPaganism #JewishHistory #EarlyChristianity #Byzantine #FexingoHistory #History #MiddleEast

Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo