It was during another civil war, around 62 BCE when the Roman commander Pompey came to Judah and took Jerusalem for his own. The territory which had been captured from the Syrians had to be given back, and a great tax was imposed. The Romans let the Jews do almost what they wanted while occupying their country. Herod was named as king of Jerusalem in 40 BCE, and he went from there to take the whole land. The Cohanim post was virtually reduced to nothing, and the Sanhedrin was deprived of much of its previous power. Herod's reign is normally seen as a prosperous one, although he is noted for giving little value to human life.

The Temple was rebuilt in a more Hellenistic style under Herod's orders. Although Jewish, Herod's post was controlled by Romans, and he largely obeyed what they ordered. When Herod died, the kingdom was split into three sections, one for each of his sons. This proved to be highly unsuccessul, and a civil war broke out where the High Priest was assassinated. The revolt took eight years to calm due to Nero's suicide in 68, and due to the stubborn resistance of the Jews! In the year 74, the last Jewish outpost, the Masada, was taken. Here, many Jews chose to kill themselves instead of being taken by the Romans. It is said that because suicide is contrary to Jewish belief, the head of each family or group present would kill the others, and then would kill himself, thus reducing the number of people who committed suicide.

The Romans were surprisingly tolerant, and continued to let the Jews live as before, even allowing the establishment of a new council. Simeon bar Kosiba led another revolt in 132 which, although it led to very heavy Roman losses, had a drastic effect on the Jews, who were killed in their hundreds of thousands. The Jews were then banished from Jerusalem, and the province was renamed Syria Palestina. Galilee became flooded with Jewish refugees, where the government tried (in vain) to ban the practice of circumcision.

It was not until aroound the year 350 when the first piece of anti-Jewish legislation was passed by the Romans, which understandably led to another (unsuccessful) revolt. From then on, the situation deteriorated although there were brief periods of ease (including an unsuccessful attempt by the Romans to rebuild the Temple).

During and after the many revolts that were led by the Jews, the diaspora continued to grow - a few million Jews were living in surrounding provinces. A large number of these Jews lived in Babylonia, although even here they were in the minority. Other places of notable populations were parts of France, eastern Spain, north Africa, Italy and Egypt (mainly in areas of Christian rule).