Province of Judaea | |||||||||
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Province of the Roman Empire | |||||||||
6 CE–135 CE | |||||||||
The Roman Empire under the reign of Hadrian (125 AD) with Judaea highlighted in red | |||||||||
Capital | Caesarea Maritima | ||||||||
Area | |||||||||
• Coordinates | 32°30′N 34°54′E / 32.500°N 34.900°E | ||||||||
History | |||||||||
Government | |||||||||
Prefects before 41, Procurators after 44 | |||||||||
• 6–9 CE | Coponius | ||||||||
• 26–36 CE | Pontius Pilate | ||||||||
• 64–66 CE | Gessius Florus | ||||||||
• 117 CE | Lusius Quietus | ||||||||
• 130–132 CE | Tineius Rufus | ||||||||
King of the Jews | |||||||||
• 41–44 | Agrippa I | ||||||||
• 48–93/100 | Agrippa II | ||||||||
Legislature | Synedrion/Sanhedrin | ||||||||
Historical era | Roman Principate | ||||||||
6 CE | |||||||||
c. 30/33 CE | |||||||||
• Crisis under Caligula | 37–41 CE | ||||||||
44 CE | |||||||||
70 CE | |||||||||
• Governor of praetorian rank and given the 10th Legion | c. 74 CE | ||||||||
• Merging into Syria Palestina | 132 CE 135 CE | ||||||||
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Before 4 August 70 is referred to as Second Temple Judaism, from which the Tannaim and Early Christianity emerged. |
Judaea (Latin: Iudaea [juːˈdae̯.a]; Ancient Greek: Ἰουδαία, romanized: Ioudaíā [i.uˈdɛ.a]) was a Roman province which incorporated the regions of Judea, Samaria, and Idumea from 6 CE, extending over parts of the former regions of the Hasmonean and Herodian kingdoms of Judea. The name Judaea, like the similar Judea, was derived from the Iron Age Kingdom of Judah, but the Roman province encompassed a much larger territory.
With the transition to full Roman province, Judaea became subject to direct Roman rule, replacing a system of semi-autonomous vassalage that had existed since the Roman Republic conquest of the region in 63 BCE. The change was enacted by the Roman emperor Augustus after an appeal by the populace against the ill rule of Herod Archelaus. With the onset of direct rule, the official census instituted by Publius Sulpicius Quirinius, the governor of Roman Syria, nevertheless caused tensions and led to an uprising by Judas of Galilee. In other notable events in the period, the crucifixion of Jesus in 30–33 CE led to the emergence of the Jewish Christian groups that later developed into Christianity, while in 37 CE, Emperor Caligula ordered the erection of a statue of himself in the Jewish temple, an episode known as the Caligula Crisis.
Growing discontent at Roman rule led to the First Jewish–Roman War in 66-73 CE and ultimately the Siege of Jerusalem and destruction of the temple in 70 CE,[1] bringing an end to the Second Temple period. Following the war, the Fiscus Judaicus was instituted. In 132 AD, the province of Judaea was merged with Galilee into an enlarged province named Syria Palaestina.[2][3][4]
The first intervention of Rome in the region dates from 63 BCE, following the end of the Third Mithridatic War, when Rome established the province of Syria. After the defeat of Mithridates VI of Pontus, Pompey sacked Jerusalem and installed the Hasmonean prince Hyrcanus II as Ethnarch and High Priest, but not as king. Some years later Julius Caesar appointed Antipater the Idumaean, also known as Antipas, as the first Roman Procurator. Antipater's son Herod was designated "King of the Jews" by the Roman Senate in 40 BCE[5] but he did not gain military control until 37 BCE. During his reign the last representatives of the Hasmoneans were eliminated, and the huge port of Caesarea Maritima was built.[6]
Herod died in 4 BCE, and his kingdom was divided among three of his sons, two of whom (Philip and Herod Antipas) became tetrarchs ('rulers of a quarter part'). The third son, Archelaus, became an ethnarch and ruled over half of his father's kingdom.[7] One of these principalities was Judea, corresponding to the territory of the historic Judea, plus Samaria and Idumea.
Archelaus ruled Judea so badly that he was dismissed in 6 CE by the Roman emperor Augustus, after an appeal from his own population. Herod Antipas, ruler of Galilee and Perea from 4 BCE, was dismissed by Emperor Caligula in 39 CE. Herod's son Philip ruled the northeastern part of his father's kingdom.[8]
History of Israel |
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Following the death of Herod the Great, the Herodian Kingdom of Judea was divided into the Herodian Tetrarchy, jointly ruled by Herod's sons and sister: Herod Archelaus (who ruled Judea, Samaria and Idumea), Herod Philip (who ruled Batanea, Trachonitis as well as Auranitis), Herod Antipas (who ruled Galilee and Perea) and Salome I (who briefly ruled Jamnia).
A messianic revolt erupted in Judea in 4 BCE because of Archelaus's incompetence; the revolt was brutally crushed by the Legate of Syria, Publius Quinctilius Varus, who occupied Jerusalem and crucified 2000 Jewish rebels.[9][10]
Because of his failure to properly rule Judea, Archelaus was removed from his post by Emperor Augustus in 6 CE, while Judea, Samaria and Idumea came under direct Roman administration.[11]
History of Palestine |
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The Judean province did not initially include Galilee, Gaulanitis (today's Golan), nor Peraea or the Decapolis. Its revenue was of little importance to the Roman treasury, but it controlled the land and coastal sea routes to the "bread basket" of Egypt and was a buffer against the Parthian Empire. The capital was moved from Jerusalem to Caesarea Maritima.[12]
Augustus appointed Publius Sulpicius Quirinius to the post of Legate of Syria and he conducted the first Roman tax census of Syria and Judea in 6 CE, which triggered the revolt of Judas of Galilee; the revolt was quickly crushed by Quirinius.[13]
Judea was not a senatorial province, nor an imperial province, but instead was a "satellite of Syria"[14] governed by a prefect who was a knight of the Equestrian Order (as was that of Roman Egypt), not a former consul or praetor of senatorial rank. Quirinius appointed Coponius as first prefect of Judea.[15]
Still, Jews living in the province maintained some form of independence and could judge offenders by their own laws, including capital offenses, until c. 28 CE.[16] Judea in the early Roman period was divided into five administrative districts with centers in Jerusalem, Gadara, Amathus, Jericho, and Sepphoris.[17]
In 30-33 CE, Roman prefect Pontius Pilate, at the request of the Jewish authorities, had Jesus of Nazareth crucified on the charge of sedition, an act that led to the birth of Christianity.[18][19][20] In 36 CE another messianic revolt erupted near Mount Gerizim, under the lead of a Samaritan, and was quickly crushed by Pilate; the Samaritans complained against Pilate's brutality to the Legate of Syria Lucius Vitellius the Elder, who removed Pilate from his post and sent him to Rome to account, replacing him with an acting prefect called Marcellus.[21]
In 37 CE, Emperor Caligula ordered the erection of a statue of himself in the Jewish Temple of Jerusalem,[22] a demand in conflict with Jewish monotheism.[23] The Legate of Syria, Publius Petronius, fearing civil war if the order was carried out, delayed implementing it for nearly a year.[24] King Herod Agrippa I finally convinced Caligula to reverse the order.[25] Caligula later issued a second order to have his statue erected in the Temple of Jerusalem, but he was murdered before the statue reached Jerusalem and his successor Claudius rescinded the order.[26] The "Crisis under Caligula" has been proposed as the first open break between Rome and the Jews.[27]
Between 41 and 44 CE, Judea regained its nominal autonomy, when Herod Agrippa was made King of the Jews by the emperor Claudius, thus in a sense restoring the Herodian dynasty, although there is no indication that Judea ceased to be a Roman province simply because it no longer had a prefect. Claudius had decided to allow, across the empire, procurators, who had been personal agents to the Emperor often serving as provincial tax and finance ministers, to be elevated to governing magistrates with full state authority to keep the peace. He may have elevated Judea's procurator to imperial governing status because the imperial legate of Syria was not sympathetic to the Judeans.[28]
Following Agrippa's death in 44, the province returned to direct Roman control, incorporating Agrippa's personal territories of Galilee and Peraea, under a row of procurators. Nevertheless, Agrippa's son, Agrippa II was designated King of the Jews in 48. He was the seventh and last of the Herodians.
A famine took place in Jerusalem, likely between 44 and 48,[29] which Josephus describes as follows:[30]
she went down to the city Jerusalem, her son conducting her on her journey a great way. Now her coming was of very great advantage to the people of Jerusalem; for whereas a famine did oppress them at that time, and many people died for want of what was necessary to procure food withal, queen Helena sent some of her servants to Alexandria with money to buy a great quantity of corn, and others of them to Cyprus, to bring a cargo of dried figs. And as soon as they were come back, and had brought those provisions, which was done very quickly, she distributed food to those that were in want of it, and left a most excellent memorial behind her of this benefaction, which she bestowed on our whole nation. And when her son Izates was informed of this famine, he sent great sums of money to the principal men in Jerusalem.
Between the years 66-70 follows the Great Revolt.
From 70 until 135 Judea's rebelliousness required a governing Roman legate capable of commanding legions. Because Agrippa II maintained loyalty to the Empire, the Kingdom was retained until he died, either in 93/94 or 100, when the area returned to complete, undivided Roman control.
Judaea was the stage of two, possibly three, major Jewish–Roman wars:
Under Diocletian (284–305) the region was divided into three provinces:[38]
Agriculture played a significant role in economic life in Judaea. It is thought that grain was the main crop grown in Judaea's fields, namely wheat but also the harder and less common barley in drier regions. Many olive and winepresses have been discovered by archaeologists, demonstrating the significance of olive oil and wine as well. Evidence for the cultivation of herbs, garden vegetables, and legumes comes from Rabbinic literature, Josephus' works, and the New Testament. Writings from the late first and early second centuries indicate that Jewish farmers introduced rice to Palestine during the early Roman period. The local crop was fine, large-kernel rice.[39][40]
Main article: Roman administration of Judaea (AD 6–135) |