Of those who survived also some were put to death; the rest were sold or carried off to the mines and amphitheatres.  The city was levelled with the ground; the tenth legion was left behind in charge.  Titus took with him to Rome for his triumphal procession Simon bar Giora and John of Giscala, along with seven hundred other prisoners, also the sacred booty taken from the temple, the candlestick, the golden table, and a copy of the Torah.  He was slightly premature with his triumph; for some time elapsed, and more than one bloody battle was necessary before the rebellion was completely stifled.  It did not come wholly to an end until the fall of Masada (April 73).

I5.  THE RABBINS.

Even now Palestine continued for a while to be the centre of Jewish life, but only in order to prepare the way for its transition into thoroughly cosmopolitan forms.  The development of thought sustained no break on account of the sad events which had taken place, but was only directed once more in a consistent manner towards these objects which had been set before it from the time of the Babylonian exile.  On the ruins of the city and of the temple the Pharisaic Judaism which rests upon the law and the school celebrated its triumph.  National fanaticism indeed was not yet extinguished, but it burnt itself completely out in the vigorous insurrection led by Simeon bar Koziba (Bar Cochebas, 132-135).  That a conspicuous rabbin, Akiba, should have taken part in it, and have recognised in Simeon the Messiah, was an inconsistency on his part which redounds to his honour.

Inasmuch as the power of the rabbins did not depend upon the political or hierarchical forms of the old commonwealth, it survived the fall of the latter.  Out of what hitherto had been a purely moral influence something of an official position now grew.  They formed themselves into a college which regarded itself as a continuation of the old synedrium, and which carried forward its name.  At first its seat was at Jamnia, but it soon removed to Galilee, and remained longest at Tiberias.  The presidency was hereditary in the family of Hillel, with the last descendants of whom the court itself came to an end. 1

*************************************** 1.  The following is the genealogy of the first Nasi:—­Gamaliel ben Simeon (Josephus, Vita, 38) ben Gamaliel (Acts v. 34, xxii. 3) ben simeon ben Hillel.  The name Gamaliel was that which occurred most frequently among the patriarchs; see Codex Theod. xvi. 8, 22. ***************************************

The respect in which the synedrial president was held rapidly increased; like Christian patriarchs under Mahometan rule, he was also recognised by the imperial government as the municipal head of the Jews of Palestine, and bore the secular title of the old high priests (nasi, ethnarch, patriarch).  Under him the Palestinian Jews continued to form a kind of state within a state until the 5th century.  From the non-Palestinian Jews he received offerings of money. (Compare Gothofredus on Codex Theod., xvi. 8, “De Judaeis;” and Morinus, Exer.  Bibl., ii. exerc. 3, 4).