Since the first centuries of the CE, most Jews have lived outside the area commonly known as Palestine, following the destruction of the Second Temple and the massacre of the Jews in Jerusalem. Of the 600,000 (Tacitus) or 1,000,000 (Josephus) Jews of Jerusalem, all of them either died of starvation, were killed or were sold into slavery. A minority presence of Jews has been attested for almost all of the period. For example, according to tradition, the Jewish community of Peki'in has maintained a Jewish presence since the Second Temple period. According to the Tanakh, God had assigned Canaan to the Jews as a Promised Land, a belief conserved also in the Septuagint and both Christian and Islamic tradition. The Diaspora began in 586 BCE during the Babylonian occupation of Israel. The Babylonians destroyed the First Temple, which was central to Jewish culture at the time. After the 1st-century Great Revolt and the 2nd-century Bar Kokhba revolt, the Roman Empire banned Jews from Jerusalem and called the territory "Syria Palaestina."