Although the city and the temple had been destroyed and thousands of the inhabitants were driven into foreign lands, some of the exiles returned sixty years later, led by a pretender to Messianic authority. These tried again to defy Rome. A war began which lasted two years. It is claimed that 580,000 of the people fell in this conflict, besides those who perished by famine, pestilence and fire. At that time, it is said, fifty cities were totally destroyed, and Judaea was left a desert. From that time Jews have been a foreign element in nearly every country on earth, in Asia, in Europe, in Africa and America. According to a decree of Emperor Hadrian, Jews were prohibited, on the pain of death, to enter Jerusalem.