Roman rule

After Pompey the Great conquered Palestine and it fell under Roman rule, two additional Jewish revolts also occurred -- one from AD66 to 73 and the other from AD132 to 135.

At the conclusion of the second revolt, many Jews were executed. A large number were sold into slavery and the remainder were forbidden to visit Jerusalem. This was the situation in Palestine until AD313 when the Emperor Constantine the Great legalized Christianity in the Roman Empire. His mother visited Jerusalem and Palestine subsequently became a focus of Christian pilgrimage.

The people in Palestine became Hellenized (following essentially Greek customs and traditions) and Christianized and the Byzantines (the Eastern Roman Empire) ruled the area from Constantinople. This lasted, except for a brief Persian occupation from AD614-629, until Palestine was invaded by Muslim Arab armies which captured Jerusalem in AD638.