Others believe that the Israelites were forced from the coast by invading "sea peoples" . The next two centuries are known as the Period of Judges. Local leaders, Gideon and Samuel among them, united the Israelite tribes under a new god, Yahweh, to fight off the encroaching Egyptians, Canaanites, and Philistines. Despite their efforts, the Philistines triumphed in 1200 ВСЕ. The Philistines left behind two last- ing contributions: expertise in iron work and a new name for the country-Pales- tine . Possibly inspired by the arrival of Semitic brethren from Egypt , the Israelites founded their own king- dom under Saul at the end of the 11th century ВСЕ. The Israelite kingdom reached its peak during the reign of Saul's successor David, and that of David's son, Solomon. The construction of the Temple of Jerusa- lem is considered Solomon's most formidable feat. After Solomon's death in 922 ВСЕ, social and political unrest split the empire into the Kingdom of Israel in the north and the Kingdom of Judah in the south. The Assyrians conquered Israel in the late 8th century ВСЕ. The ten tribes of northern Israel were taken into captivity and never returned. Judah became a vas- sal state of the Assyrian empire until the Assyrians themselves were crushed by the Babylonians. The Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar conquered Judah, razed the Temple, burned Jerusalem, and deported many Jews to Mesopotamia in 587 ВСЕ. When the Persians defeated Nebuchadnez- zar's successor some 50 years later, King Cyrus permitted the Jews to return to Jerusalem and build the Second Temple . Though small, this new Jewish community was revived by the Jewish governor Nehemiah and by the Babylonian Jew Ezra GREEKS & NABATEANS The Israelites prospered intellectually and economically under the Persians, until Alexander the Great conquered the region in 332 ВСЕ. The Syrian-based Seleucids displaced his heirs in 198 ВСЕ and attempted to Hellenize the Jews. Judah Macca- bee led a revolt of the Jewish lower classes, now commemorated by Hanukkah. Victorious, the Maccabees re-sanctified the Temple in 164 ВСЕ and founded the Hasmonean Dynasty. The Nabateans, originally a nomadic Arab tribe, moved into the area south of the Dead Sea around the 2nd century ВСЕ. They emerged as an independent kingdom by about 169 ВСЕ. They took control of at least a part of the Red Sea trade route, which proved to be an important source of income. With Petra as its capital, the Nabatean kingdom continued to flourish. In 106 CE, the Roman emperor Trajan was finally able to conquer Petra. He abolished the kingdom and reorganized its territories into a Roman province. ROMANS In 63 ВСЕ, the Roman general Pompey swept in, secured much of modern-day Israel, and ruled via Herod the Great. In 70 CE the Roman general Titus burned the Temple with the rest of Jerusalem. The destruction led to dramatic upheaval among the Jewish people. Three years later the Romans captured the last Jewish stronghold at Masada .