This period was one of great contrasts in the city's history. During the six centuries of Roman rule, Lod experienced both turmoil and tranquility, and its inhabitants experienced both decline and prosperity.

The Roman period began with Pompey's conquest of Judea in 66 BCE, which ended the Hasmonean Dynasty. Despite this, Lod remained part of Judea, and the Roman emperor Julius Caesar appointed Hyrcanus II as ruler of the people.

In 48 BCE, Lod became one of the eleven toparchies, or district cities, established by the Roman rulers in the Land of Israel: Jerusalem, the second Gophna, Akrabatta, Timna, Lod, Emmaus, Idumea, Peli, Ein Gedi, Herodion, and Jericho.

During the time of Herod, Lod was one of the most important cities. An important road passed through Lod, connecting Jerusalem with the coastal cities that flourished during his reign.

The function of Lod as a district city can be inferred from a trial that took place in the city about twenty years before the destruction of the Temple. During the reign of Emperor Claudius (41-54 CE), when Agrippa II ruled the country, a serious conflict arose between the Jews and the Samaritans who lived in the city. The Jews and Samaritans fought each other because the Samaritans attacked Jewish pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem.

During the time of Herod, Lod (like other cities) was taxed. Once, in 43 CE, during the reign of Emperor Claudius, the people of Lod did not pay their taxes, and so the residents of Lod and other cities who did not pay taxes (Gofna, Emmaus, and Timna) were sold into slavery.

About twenty years before the destruction of the Second Temple, the Samaritans and the Jews clashed, and when the Jews went up to Jerusalem on a pilgrimage, they were attacked by the Samaritans. The conflict grew and worsened until the parties turned to the Roman Governor in Syria, asking him to hear their case and punish the guilty party. The Governor Cordetus came to Judea and began adjudicating the dispute of Lod. There he ordered that eighteen Jews be brought before him, whom he had heard had participated in the dispute, and had their heads chopped off with an axe.

From: Varkat, Ora, 1977, Lod - Historical Geography, published by Goma and the Municipality of Lod - Cherikover.

During this period, the Jews suffered greatly at the hands of foreign oppressors. For example, the Roman Governor of Syria attacked the city when its inhabitants left to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem for Sukkot, or to go out and fight their enemies. According to Josephus, the Roman Governor burned the city and killed fifty people - children, old men, and women who remained in the city.

During the Roman war against the Jews in 66-70 CE, Vespasian, leading the Roman army, conquered the provinces that stood in the way of his conquest of Jerusalem, with the aim of suppressing the uprising in Judea. One of the provinces was Lod, with its provincial capital, Lod. The Jewish army commander, Yochanan the Essene, was put in charge of defending Lod. According to Josephus, the province of Lod: The people of Lod and Yavne made a peace deal with Vespasian, who put a garrison in the city and set up a big camp for his army. Josephus wrote about this: "After subduing the entire district of Timnah, he turned to Lod and to Yavne, which had made a peace treaty with him, and he settled in them the Jews who had surrendered to him and found favor in his eyes." (Source: The Jewish War, Book 4, Chapter 8, Section 1)

From then on, Lod became a city of refuge for scholars who fled from the terror of the kingdom. Here the scholars found a safe haven, probably because Vespasian had made a treaty with the inhabitants of Lod and Yavne during his conquest on his way to Jerusalem, and Jews who had settled there surrendered to him or found favor in his eyes. This is also why Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai sought to save these two cities in particular, where many scholars had settled who had already come to terms with Roman rule, seeing that there was no hope of victory over the mighty Roman Empire, and preferred to study Torah in peace and quiet.

From: Vakar, Ora, 1977, Lod - Historical Geography, published by Goma and the Municipality of Lod - Cherikover.

Thus, many scholars who survived the destruction of Jerusalem gathered in Lod. These scholars, along with many other Jews who settled there after the destruction of Jerusalem, turned Lod into an important Jewish center, so much so that the city earned the name “the second to Jerusalem.”

From: Zohar Baram, From Emmaus to Lod: From the Lowlands (Shefela) to the Sea

Even later, people fleeing the wrath of the Empire saw Lod as a city of refuge. It is said that "Ula ben Kushav was summoned to the kingdom. He fled and went to Lod to Rabbi Joshua ben Levi. They came (Roman soldiers, who demanded the surrender of the rebel), and surrounded the city (Lod), and said to them, ‘If you do not hand him over to us, we will destroy the city.’ Rabbi Joshua ben Levi dealt with them and appeased them, saying, 'Better that the man (Ula) be killed than that the public be killed by him. They appeased him and handed him over.

From: Vekart, Ora, 1977, Lod - Historical Geography, published by Goma and the Municipality of Lod - Cherikover.

The period between the destruction of the Temple (70 CE) and the Gallus Revolt (351 CE) was characterized by a process of increasing urbanization in the Land of Judea. Lod benefited from this process and its population grew throughout this period. However, the city's population did not remain predominantly Jewish throughout this period. Initially, the majority of the population was Jewish and the minority was non-Jewish, but over the years the ratio changed and the Jews became a minority.

During the reign of the Roman emperor Septimius Severus in 200 CE, Lod was granted the status of a Roman city and renamed Diospolis. This name is engraved on coins from Lod from the Severan period.

From: Zohar Baram, From Emmaus to Lod: From the Lowlands (Shefela) to the Sea