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If they could have claimed 600 million, they would have -- they have form:

THE VOICE OF JACOB: 'THIS IS CAUSED BY THE EMPEROR VESPARSIAN, WHO KILLED, IN THE CITY OF BETHAR, FOUR HUNDRED-THOUSAND MYRIADS; OR, AS SOME SAY, FOUR THOUSAND MYRIADS.' THE HANDS ARE THE HAND OF ESAU: THIS IS THE GOVERNMENT OF ROME WHICH HAS DESTROYED OUR HOUSE AND BURNT OUR TEMPLE, AND DRIVEN US OUT OF OUR LAND.

(Babylonian Talmud, Tractate: Gittin 57b)

NB: Four hundred-thousand myriads" = 400,000 x 10,000 = 4,000,000,000 (four BILLION); "four thousand myriads" = 40,000,000 (forty million). The passage refers to the razing of the "Second Temple" by the Romans, fabled to have occurred around 70 A.D. / C. E.. The estimated population of the world at 1 A.D. / C. E. was 150~200 million (including China, India, and Africa); while, there are around 17 million Jews in the world today.