Editing Temple Mount (section)

=== Late Roman period ===
[[File:Roman_Centaur_Tile_of_Al-Aqsa_Mosque.jpg|thumb|Roman centaur relief (135–325 CE) reused as a floor panel in the al-Aqsa Mosque, was found during restoration work in the 1930s.]]
From the first through the seventh centuries Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire, gradually became the predominant religion of Palestine and under the Byzantines Jerusalem itself was almost completely Christian, with most of the population being [[Miaphysitism|Jacobite Christians of the Syrian rite]].<ref name="Marsham" /><ref name =Shick/>

Emperor [[Constantine the Great|Constantine I]] promoted the Christianization of Roman society, giving it precedence over pagan cults.<ref>[[Timothy Barnes (classicist)|Timothy D. Barnes]], ''Constantine and Eusebius,'' Harvard University Press, 1981, pp. 50–53, 201ff, 211, 245ff</ref> One consequence was that Hadrian's Temple to [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]] on the Temple Mount was demolished immediately following the [[First Council of Nicea]] in 325 CE on orders of Constantine.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lundquist |first=John M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R9VeCEwbNvsC&pg=PA156 |title=The Temple of Jerusalem: Past, Present, and Future |date=2008 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=978-0-275-98339-0 |page=156 |language=en}}</ref>

The [[Itinerarium Burdigalense|Bordeaux Pilgrim]], who visited Jerusalem in 333–334, during the reign of Emperor Constantine I, wrote that "There are two statues of Hadrian, and, not far from them, a pierced stone to which the Jews come every year and anoint. They mourn and rend their garments, and then depart."<ref>{{Cite book | author = F.E. Peters | title = Jerusalem | publisher = Princeton University Press | year = 1985 | page=143}}</ref> The occasion is assumed to have been [[Tisha b'Av]], since decades later [[Jerome]] related that that was the only day on which Jews were permitted to enter Jerusalem.<ref name="Tasfrir">{{Cite book |author=Tsafrir |first=Yoram |title=Where Heaven and Earth Meet: Jerusalem's Sacred Esplanade |publisher=University of Texas Press |year=2009 |editor=Grabar |editor-first=Oleg |editor-link=Oleg Grabar |pages=86–87 |chapter=70–638: The Temple-less Mountain |editor-last2=Kedar |editor-first2=Benjamin Z. |editor-link2=Benjamin Z. Kedar}}</ref>

Constantine's nephew Emperor [[Julian the Apostate|Julian]] granted permission in the year 363 for the Jews to rebuild the Temple.<ref name="Tasfrir"/><ref>{{Cite book |last=Har-El |first=Menashe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9Z2cFY9iGqgC&pg=PA29 |title=Golden Jerusalem |date=2004 |publisher=Gefen Publishing House Ltd |isbn=978-965-229-254-4 |page=29 |language=en}}</ref> In a letter attributed to Julian he wrote to the Jews that "This you ought to do, in order that, when I have successfully concluded the war in Persia, I may rebuild by my own efforts the sacred city of Jerusalem, which for so many years you have longed to see inhabited, and may bring settlers there, and, together with you, may glorify the Most High God therein."<ref name="Tasfrir"/> Julian saw the Jewish God as a fitting member of the pantheon of gods he believed in, and he was also a strong opponent of Christianity.<ref name="Tasfrir"/><ref>{{Cite book |author=Sivan |first=Hagith |title=Palestine in Late Antiquity |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2008 |page=205}}</ref> Church historians wrote that the Jews began to clear away the structures and rubble on the Temple Mount but were thwarted, first by a great earthquake, and then by miracles that included fire springing from the earth.<ref name="PetersJulian">{{Cite book |author=Peters |first=F.E. |title=Jerusalem |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1985 |pages=145–47 |language=en-us}}</ref> However, no contemporary Jewish sources mention this episode directly.<ref name="Tasfrir"/>