Person · 3655–3713 AM · 106 BCE — 48 BCE
Pompey
Roman general who entered the Holy of Holies
Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (106–48 BCE) took Jerusalem in 63 BCE, arbitrating the quarrel of Hyrcanus and Aristobulus—and entered the Holy of Holies. Finding an empty room with no image of a god he was, by Tacitus' account, astonished; he left the Temple untouched, but from that day Judea was under Rome.
On the timeline
Sources
Documents of the period
- Josephus, Antiquities XIV — the taking of Jerusalem and the entry into the Holy of Holies
- Tacitus, Histories V:9 — «the empty dwelling»
Basis: documents and evidence.