In AD 70, the second dynasty of the Pax Romana was about to commence. Its founder, Vespasian, earned his opportunity to claim the empire largely because of victories in one of the empire’s most contentious provinces: Judea—the territory which now resides in the modern state of Israel. The relationship between Roman occupiers and the Jewish people gradually soured in the first century AD—culminating in a lengthy and bloody revolt in which Jerusalem, and the historic Jewish temple it contained—were destroyed.