Don T. - You asked "what set the Jews off to wandering again. Does anybody really know?"

I'm surprised you would have to ask that.

Yeah, sure people know. The Roman Empire set them off to wandering again when they crushed the various Jewish rebellions against Roman rule in the first and second centuries C.E.

The Jewish–Roman wars were a series of large-scale revolts by the Jews of Judaea Province and the Eastern Mediterranean against the Roman Empire. Some sources use the term to refer only to the First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE) and Bar Kokhba revolt (132–135 CE) while others include the Kitos War (115–117) as one of the Jewish–Roman wars, although this revolt started among the Jewish diaspora in Cyrenaica, and only its final stages were actually fought within Judaea Province.

The Jewish-Roman wars had an epic impact on the Jews, turning them from a major population in the Eastern Mediterranean into a scattered and persecuted minority. The events also had a major impact on Judaism, as the central worship site of Judaism, the Temple in Jerusalem, was destroyed by Titus' troops. Although the Samaritans gained some sort of autonomy in the 4th century and the Jews later succeeded in establishing the short-lived Sassanid Jewish Commonwealth in 614 CE, Jewish dominance in parts of the Southern Levant was regained only in the mid-20th century, with the founding of Israel in 1948.

Just as an aside, I find it kind of interesting that many of the classic symbols of the Roman Empire have been adopted ever since by other dominant military empires...symbols such as the Fasces (used by both Fascist Italy and the USA...see the American dime for one use of it)...the winged (or not) female Liberty figure...and the stylized Eagle (used extensively by all the Germanic peoples, Imperial Russia, and of course the USA and numerous others). A number of these empires have come down hard on the Jews at one time or another. One of them, the USA, is presently allying itself with the new Israel and is coming down hard on the Muslims instead. There have, of course, been many wars already between the Christians and the Muslims, so that's an old story.