The city, already weakened by infighting among rival factions led by John of Gischala, Simon bar Giora and Eleazar ben Simon—who had seized control after the collapse of the moderate rebel government—was cut off from supplies, leaving its inhabitants to suffer from starvation and disease.

In the summer month of Av, Roman forces breached the Temple Mount and destroyed the Second Temple—an event commemorated annually in Jewish tradition on the fast day of Tisha B'Av.

[14][2] During Judaism's Three Pilgrimage Festivals—the holidays of Passover, Sukkot (Tabernacles), and Shavuot (Weeks)—Jerusalem's population swelled, as tens of thousands of visitors from Judaea and from abroad traveled to the city to observe religious rituals at the temple.

[27] Soon after, Eleazar ben Hanania, the young captain of the Temple, halted the traditional sacrifices offered on behalf of the Roman emperor,[28][29] and Jewish rebels set fire to the high priest's house, the palaces of Agrippa II and Berenice, and the public archives, which contained debt records.

[63] By spring 69 CE, Simon bar Giora's forces encamped outside Jerusalem, attacking deserters, while inside, the Galilean Zealots terrorized the population with murder, rape, and plunder.

[68] Additional support came from detachments of III Cyrenaica and XXII Deiotariana legions from Egypt, twenty infantry cohortes, eight cavalry alae, Syrian irregulars, and auxiliaries from allied vassal kings.

[6] Tacitus writes that those who were besieged in Jerusalem amounted to no fewer than 600,000, that men and women alike of every age engaged in armed resistance, that everyone who could pick up a weapon did, and that both sexes showed equal determination, preferring death to a life that involved expulsion from their country.

[86] In preparation for the assault on Jerusalem, Titus undertook a risky reconnaissance mission with 600 cavalrymen to evaluate the city's northern defenses, during which he narrowly escaped an ambush by rebel forces after being cut off from his main group.

[108] Simultaneously, Roman forces tortured and crucified fugitives in view of the city walls—at times in varied positions for soldiers' amusement—resulting in over 500 daily executions that filled the available space for crosses, aiming to intimidate the besieged into surrender.

[117] The Romans responded by constructing new engines and encircling Jerusalem with a 5 miles (8.0 km) circumvallation wall made of stone to block supplies and escape routes, reportedly completing this work in just three days, according to Josephus.

[137] According to Josephus, on Av 9th/10th (late August[62]), a Roman soldier hurled a burning piece of wood into the northern chamber, igniting a fire that ultimately consumed the entire temple structure.

[151][143] They then hailed Titus as imperator, looted the remaining valuables before the temple was fully consumed, and seized such an immense amount of plunder that the gold standard in Syria reportedly depreciated by half.

[142][141][156] Josephus reports that, earlier, when consulting with his officers, Titus had decided against those advocating for the temple's destruction, believing that Rome should preserve such a magnificent structure and retain it as an ornament of Roman rule.

Instead, he ordered the razing of extensive sections of Jerusalem, including the Acra, the Ophel, the council chamber of the Sanhedrin, with the destruction and fire reaching the palaces built by the royalty of Adiabene.

[182] Josephus' account of Jerusalem's inhabitants attempting to escape through underground passages after the city's fall aligns with archaeological findings beneath the stepped street in the Tyropoeon Valley.

[214][207] At dawn, Vespasian and Titus, adorned in laurel crowns and purple robes, emerged from the Temple of Isis in the Campus Martius, and proceeded to the Porticus Octaviae, where they were met by senators, chief magistrates, and equestrian order members.

[229][230] Excavations in Shuafat, 4 kilometers north of Jerusalem's Old City, uncovered evidence of a settlement established after the destruction, designed in the Roman style but hosting a substantial Jewish population.

[240] Around 130 CE, six decades after Jerusalem's destruction, a new Roman colony, Aelia Capitolina, was founded on the city's ruins, an act described by historian Martin Goodman as the "final solution for Jewish rebelliousness".

[250] A Christian pilgrim from Bordeaux who visited Jerusalem in 333 CE recorded that Jews would come annually to anoint a perforated stone, "bewail themselves with groans, rend their garments, and so depart.

Drawing from biblical interpretations of Jerusalem's destruction in 586/587 BCE by the Babylonians, many Jews viewed their suffering as a divine consequence of moral or religious transgressions, a belief reinforced by scriptural writings and prophetic teachings.

[252] The idea that exile resulted from disobedience, but repentance could restore divine favor had been reinforced when the Persian king Cyrus allowed the Jews to return and rebuild the temple centuries earlier.

[253] Cassius Dio writes that "the Jews defended themselves much more vigorously than before, as if they had discovered a piece of rare good fortune in being able to fight near the temple and fall in its defence"; they soon "met death willingly, some throwing themselves on the swords of the Romans, some slaying one another, others taking their own lives, and still others leaping into the flames.

[255] In Avot de-Rabbi Natan, it is stated that the sons of the leading priests, seeing the sanctuary in flames, threw the temple's keys from the rooftop toward heaven, declaring themselves unworthy custodians, no longer fit to partake of the king's provisions.

[258][259] In the decades following Jerusalem's destruction, Jewish apocalyptic literature experienced a resurgence,[260] mourning the Temple's loss, seeking to explain its fate, and expressing hope for the city's restoration.

[261][260] Some of these are pseudepigraphal works that interpret the destruction of 70 CE through the lens of figures associated with the First Temple's fall in 587/6 BCE or its aftermath,[262][263][264] as this earlier catastrophe left a deep imprint on the Hebrew Bible, drawing Jews who endured a similar disaster to reflect on it.

He writes to the exiles of the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities, describing Zion's destruction, sharing divine promises of justice, and urging them to uphold the Law as they await the approaching end, before sending the letter with an eagle.

[279][274] In another vision, Ezra is commissioned to restore the Law, first warning the people that their suffering comes from disobedience, and then dictating ninety-four books, with twenty-four made public and seventy reserved for the wise.

In response, Ribaz reassured him that acts of loving-kindness could serve as an equally effective form of atonement, citing a verse from the biblical prophet Hosea:Once as Rabban Johanan ben Zakkai was coming forth from Jerusalem, Rabbi Joshua followed after him and beheld the Temple in ruins.

[294]The emerging rabbinic approach advocated a balanced response: while Jews were to temper their celebrations in remembrance of the temple's destruction, they were not to adopt excessive mourning that would impede the rhythms of daily life.

[257] A rabbinic tradition in the Tosefta Sotah and Babylonian Talmud (Bava Batra 60b) recounts a debate between Rabbi Joshua and a group of interlocutors who proposed abstaining from wine and meat, given their former role in temple offerings.