<P> There is some evidence from archaeology that further changes to the structure of the Temple and its surroundings were made during the Hasmonean rule . Salome Alexandra, the queen of Hasmonean Kingdom appointed her elder son Hyrcanus II as the high priest of Judaea . Her younger son Aristobulus II was determined to have the throne, and as soon as she died he seized the throne . Hyrcanus, who was in line to be the king, agreed to be contented with being the high priest . Antipater, the governor of Idumæa, encouraged Hyrcanus not to give up his throne . Eventually Hyrcanus fled to Aretas III, king of the Nabateans, and returned with an army to take back the throne . He defeated Aristobulus and besieged Jerusalem . The Roman general Pompey, who was in Syria fighting against the Armenians in the Third Mithridatic War, sent his lieutenant to investigate the conflict in Judaea . Both Hyrcanus and Aristobulus appealed to him for support . Pompey was not diligent in making a decision about this which caused Aristobulus to march off . He was pursued by Pompey and surrendered but his followers closed Jerusalem to Pompey's forces . The Romans besieged and took the city in 63 BCE . The priests continued with the religious practices inside the Temple during the siege . The temple was not looted or harmed by the Romans . Pompey himself, perhaps inadvertently, went into the Holy of Holies and the next day ordered the priests to repurify the Temple and resume the religious practices . </P> <P> Reconstruction of the temple under Herod began with a massive expansion of the Temple Mount . Religious worship and temple rituals continued during the construction process . When the Roman emperor Caligula planned to place his own statue inside the temple, Herod's grandson Agrippa I was able to intervene and convince him against this . </P> <P> Herod's Temple was one of the larger construction projects of the 1st century BCE . Josephus records that Herod was interested in perpetuating his name through building projects, that his construction programs were extensive and paid for by heavy taxes, but that his masterpiece was the Temple of Jerusalem . </P> <P> The old temple built by Zerubbabel was replaced by a magnificent edifice . An agreement was made between Herod and the Jewish religious authorities: the sacrificial rituals, called offerings, were to be continued unabated for the entire time of construction, and the Temple itself would be constructed by the priests . Later the Exodus 30: 13 sanctuary shekel was reinstituted to support the temple as the temple tax . </P>

Who initiated the rebuilding and refurbishment of the temple in c. 20 bc