including the royal palace, and Aristobulus's party held the eastern portions of the city: the Temple Mount and the City of David. The Jews consolidated their hold by breaking down the bridge over the Tyropoeon Valley that connected the upper city with the Temple Mount. Pompey offered them the chance to surrender, but their refusal made him begin to prosecute the siege with vigour. Pompey had his forces construct a wall of circumvallation around the areas that were held by the Jews. He then pitched his camp within the wall, to the north of the Temple, where stood a saddle allowed access to the Temple and so was guarded by the citadel known as the Baris, augmented by a ditch. A second camp was erected southeast of the Temple. The troops then set about filling the ditch that protected the northern part of the Temple enclosure and building two ramparts, one next to the Baris and the other on the west. The defenders, from their superior position, sought to hinder Roman efforts. When the banks were complete, Pompey erected siege towers and brought up siege engines and battering rams from Tyre. Under the protection of slingers driving the defenders from the walls, they began to batter the walls surrounding the Temple. After three months, Pompey's troops finally managed to overthrow one of the Baris towers and were able to enter the Temple precinct, both from the citadel and from the west. First over the wall was Faustus Cornelius Sulla, the son of the former dictator and a senior officer in Pompey's army. He was followed by two centurions, Furius and Fabius, who each led a cohort, and the Romans soon overcame the defending Jews, 12,000 of whom were slaughtered. However, only a few Romans troops were killed. Pompey himself entered the Temple's Holy of Holies, which only the High Priest was allowed to enter, and thus desecrated it. He did not remove anything, neither its treasures nor any funds, and the next day, he ordered the Temple cleansed and its rituals resumed. Pompey then headed back to Rome and took Aristobulus with him for his triumphal procession. Aftermath The siege and the conquest of Jerusalem were a disaster for the Hasmonean Kingdom. Pompey reinstated Hyrcanus II as the High Priest but stripped him of his royal title though Rome recognised him as an ethnarch in 47 BC. Judea remained autonomous