Rome, the Destruction of the Temple, and the Diaspora

Herod, of Idumean origin, was named "king of the Jews" by the Roman Senate in 40 BCE and ruled Judea as a Roman client king from roughly 37 to 4 BCE, a period marked by intense building activity but also by authoritarian rule and episodes of extreme cruelty, even toward members of his own family. He undertook a massive expansion of the Second Temple — the present-day Western Wall corresponds to a section of the retaining wall he built to enlarge the Temple esplanade — and constructed numerous fortresses and cities, including Masada, Herodium, and the sophisticated artificial harbor of Caesarea Maritima. After his death, his kingdom was divided among his sons, and within a few decades Judea passed to direct administration by Roman governors as a province of the empire.