Imperialist Rome employed a policy of colonization and confiscation of Jewish land, transferring it to foreigners who immigrated to the Land of Israel and settled there with the support of Roman governments. Jewish resistance to Roman policies in the Great Revolt (66–70) and the Bar Kokhba Revolt (132–135) was cruelly suppressed. Of a population of nearly 2.5 million Jews in the Land of Israel during the first century CE, only 800,000 or so remained by the end of Roman occupation in the fourth century CE. The Jewish majority in the Land of Israel was eliminated by war casualties, the sale of prisoners of war in Roman slave markets throughout the empire, and the flight of Jewish refugees. In response to the Jewish resistance to Roman policies, the Romans concentrated their attacks on elements central to the Jewish religion, destroying the temple in Jerusalem and passing decrees against circumcision and the study of the Torah. Renaming Judea as Syria-Palaestina aimed to remove any surviving connection to the Jewish nation. The Jewish minority in the Land of Israel continued to shrink during the centuries of Byzantine, Arab, Crusader, and Mamluk occupations. Jews preferred emigration over conversion.
