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Historical context

The Roman Empire

The world under Caesar

Jesus is born under Augustus; Rome rules Judea, with taxes, legions and the cross as execution.

From republic to empire

When Jesus was born, Rome had just changed its form of government. After a century of civil wars, Octavian, the great-nephew and adopted son of Julius Caesar, defeated Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the naval battle of Actium in 31 BC. In 27 BC the Senate gave him the title Augustus, “the revered one.” He kept the facade of the old republic, with a Senate and magistrates, but gathered into his own hands command of the armies and of the most important provinces. He ruled until his death in AD 14 and was succeeded by his stepson Tiberius, who reigned until AD 37, the very years of Jesus’ ministry. The empire stretched from Spain to Syria and from the Rhine to Egypt, and historians estimate its population at 50 to 60 million people. Judea had entered this orbit earlier: in 63 BC the general Pompey took Jerusalem and walked into the Holy of Holies of the Temple, a gesture Jews never forgot.

How Rome governed Judea

Rome did not run everything directly. It preferred to govern through allied kings and local elites, as long as there was order and the taxes arrived. So Judea was first entrusted to Herod the Great, a king allied with Rome. In AD 6, after Augustus deposed Herod’s son Archelaus, Judea, together with Samaria and Idumea, came under a Roman prefect from the equestrian order, the social tier just below the senators. The prefect lived in Caesarea on the coast and went up to Jerusalem for the great festivals, when the crowds required watching. He commanded auxiliary troops, largely recruited in the region itself, not legions; the legions were stationed in Syria, whose governor could step in during a crisis. Day to day, local power lay with the high priest and the council in Jerusalem. And the high priest himself was chosen by the Romans: it was the prefect Valerius Gratus who installed Caiaphas, around AD 18.

Legions and the “Roman peace”

The force behind it all was the legions. On paper a legion had about 5,000 heavy infantrymen, all Roman citizens, enlisted for twenty years or more; alongside them served auxiliary troops of non-citizens in similar numbers. Under Augustus and Tiberius there were about 25 legions for the whole empire, which forced Rome to economize its strength and use it to make examples. The result was the so-called pax Romana: roughly two centuries without major internal wars, with safer roads, a Mediterranean cleared of pirates and growing cities. Augustus celebrated this peace with an altar in Rome, the Ara Pacis, dedicated in 9 BC. But it was an imposed peace. Tacitus puts in the mouth of a British chieftain the famous line that the Romans make a desert and call it peace (Agricola 30). In Judea, that peace wore the face of a soldier and of a tax collector.

Caesar, “son of god”

Rome also offered a political religion. After Julius Caesar was declared divine in 42 BC, Octavian began presenting himself as “son of the divine one,” a title that circulated on coins. In the Greek East, cities built temples to Rome and Augustus. An inscription from Priene, in modern Turkey, dated to 9 BC, calls Augustus’ birthday the beginning of “good news” for the world, using the same Greek word Christians would use for the Gospel. Herod built temples to the emperor in Caesarea and in Samaria, which he renamed Sebaste. In Jerusalem, however, there was an arrangement: Jews did not worship the emperor, but offered daily sacrifices in the Temple to their God on his behalf. When rebels halted those sacrifices in AD 66, Josephus says this laid the foundation of the war (Jewish War 2.409). In that world, calling Jesus Lord and Son of God was also a public claim, with consequences.

Being a Roman citizen

In Jesus’ time Roman citizenship was the privilege of a minority in the East. A citizen could not be flogged or executed without trial, could appeal to the emperor and, as a rule, was spared crucifixion, which was reserved for slaves and rebels. Citizenship passed from father to son and could be granted to auxiliary soldiers at the end of their service, to slaves freed by Roman masters, or by imperial favor. Under Claudius, according to the historian Cassius Dio, it was even sold. That is why the scene in Acts 22 is so vivid: the commander who arrested Paul says he bought his citizenship for a large sum, and Paul replies that he was born a citizen. How Paul’s family obtained it, the text does not say. The officer’s name, Claudius Lysias (Acts 23:26), suggests he took the emperor’s name when he became Roman. Whole cities could be Roman colonies, like Philippi, where being Roman was a matter of local pride.

The census and another kingdom

To tax, Rome counted. When Judea became a province in AD 6, Quirinius, governor of Syria, carried out a census of people and property, and Josephus says this census sparked the revolt of Judas the Galilean (Antiquities 18.1-10). Luke connects Jesus’ birth to a census of Augustus when Quirinius governed Syria (Luke 2:1-3), yet both Matthew and Luke place the birth in the days of Herod, who died around 4 BC. Scholars propose different paths: that Luke’s Greek may indicate a registration before Quirinius’; that Quirinius had an earlier role in the region; or that Luke brought two events close together. The question remains open and calls for honesty. What Luke makes clear is the contrast: a decree from the most powerful man in the world sends a poor family to Bethlehem, where the true Lord is born. Decades later Nero would persecute Christians in Rome (Tacitus, Annals 15.44), and this kingdom would keep growing without legions.

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