30-49 Jesus, Caligula, Claudius & the Invasion of Britain

During this 20 year period Jesus of Nazareth was executed; the Roman Emperor Tiberius died in AD 37; Gaius Caligula (pictured) succeeded Tiberius; Caligula's uncle, Claudius, succeeded him; and Claudius invaded Britain in AD 43.

The year of my birth also marked the execution of Jesus of Nazareth, one of many prophets claiming to be the messiah - the King of the Jews who would free the Jews from foreign rule. Upon his death, his followers - led by Peter of Bethsaida - offended mainstream Jews by claiming that Jesus was the son of God and had been resurrected.

Had it not been for the conversion in 37 of Paul - a disgruntled member of the hereditary priestly class presiding over the rites in the Temple of Jerusalem - the new cult would have have been contained in Judea. As a Roman citizen, Paul traveled freely throughout Roman territory stirring up the Jews - particularly in Syria and Greece - but his inability to convince too many Jews that Jesus was the messiah eventually led to his momentous decision to spread what now became known as "Christianity" to non-Jews. In doing so, Paul caused a split with the Judean followers of Jesus.

The Judean followers of Jesus followed the messianic prophecy - the purpose of a messiah was to free the Jews from foreign rule, not convert foreigners - and they were disgusted at Paul for bringing unclean people, predominantly low-class urban Greeks, into their midst. They quite rightly claimed that what Paul was doing would have been anathema to Jesus.

The new Roman Emperor, Gaius (Caligula), stoked their hatred by presenting himself as a god. In 40 he ordered the Governor of Syria to erect a statue of him as a god in the Temple of Jerusalem which, had he lived to see it built, would have united all Jews to rise up against him.

Gaius averted trouble by installing Agrippa - the Romanized Jewish grandson of Herod, raised in Rome - as ruler of a part of Judea.

When Gaius was murdered in 41 his uncle, Claudius, became emperor and continuing trouble in Judea led him to actually cede the Roman province of Judea to Agrippa - who became known as King Herod Agrippa I.

Agrippa had Peter of Bethsaida imprisoned in 43 for rabble raising, but Peter was later released and joined forces with Paul, presiding over a church council in 49 admitting Gentiles to the church without having to submit themselves to Jewish ritual law..

Upon Agrippa's death, however, most of his territory reverted to government by Romans procurators - though Agrippa's son was allowed to oversee the administration of the Temple in Jerusalem.

What was happening in Judea among the Jews was of little interest to Claudius who had married the 14-year-old Valeria Messallina, and in 40 was the proud father of a daughter Octavia.

Claudius started the serious business of his reign by annexing the kingdom of Mauretania (Algeria), and when Caratacus, king of the Catavellauni tribe invaded the territories of the Atrebatese who appealed to Rome for assistance Claudius gained the opportunity to finish the work begun by Caesar in 55B.C. and expand the Roman Empire to include the British Isles.

He invaded Britain in 43 with four legions. After a shaky start when 40,000 superstitious troops refused to disembark from the invasion boats due to fear -- the Britons having a fierce reputation, sometimes charging into battle fully naked, dyed blue from head to toe, and screaming like banshees to terrify their enemies -- the army under the command of future Emperor Vespasian, split into 3 legions and commenced their attack, gaining control as far as the Midlands and Wales.

Claudius was present for the first 16 days of the campaign in order to gain credit for it. (The Romans never occupied the north of England or Scotland).

In that year, 43, Claudius had a son Britannicus named in honor of his father's conquest

In 46, he converted the client kingdom of Thrace into yet another province for Romans to settle in.

In 48 he had executed his unfaithful young wife, and in 49 he married his niece Agrippina and adopted her son Nero, four years older than Britannicus.

50-69 Nero, Boudicca of Britain & Josephus of Judea

During this 20 year period the Roman Emperor Claudius died in AD 54. He was succeeded by Nero who had to deal two revolts against Roman rule: AD 61 with Queen Boudicca (pictured) of the British Iceni tribe, and in AD 66 with Josephus of Judea.

Celtic tribal leaders friendly to the Empire (usually those that had enjoyed strong trading links with the continent) were allowed to rule their lands as client kingdoms and so it was that King Prasutagus of the Iceni and his Queen Boudicca lived for some time in relatively peaceful co-existance with the Romans. When Prasutagas died and in his will assigned half of his personal property to the Roman emperor, the Roman administration in Britain interpreted this as submission to Rome and as a consequence took steps to disarm the Iceni and appropriate all their territory.

Boudicca protested and in response the Romans flogged her and raped her daughters. Boudicca and her tribe rose up in rebellion soon to be joined by the neighbouring tribe of the Trinovantes, who had been subject to Roman rule since the invasion. Boudicca's forces assaulted the Romans at Colchester.

The Roman troops, busy in the final battle with the Druids on Anglesey Island, were taken by surprise and before they could respond Boudicca's army had routed Colchester, London and Saint Albans. When the two sides finally met, the Roman soldiers were vastly outnumbered by the rebels but by fighting as a unit they effectively neutralised the individual heroics of the Celtic tribesmen, forcing them back until they became entangled with their own camp followers who had surrounded the battlefield as spectators. The rebellion had failed. Boudicca's fate is unknown. She was either killed in battle or committed suicide after the defeat.

Nero died by suicide in 68 and then there followed the crazy year of 69 when we had 4 emperors.

In 53, Empress Agrippina secured the marriage of her son Nero to Claudius' 13-year-old daughter Octavia. The following year Claudius died from poisoning, reputedly Agrippina's work, and Nero succeeded him as emperor.

Nero's reign began in 54 with a ten year war in Armenia and in AD 61 he had to deal with Queen Boadicea (Boudicca) of the British Iceni tribe who had revolted against the Romans.

In Armenia the client king had been replaced with another king without Roman permission, and finally, Nero just gave the crown to the new king to keep the peace.

The next great event was the Great Fire of Rome in 64, during which Nero played his fiddle, totally oblivious of the chaos around him. Rightly or wrongly, the Christians were blamed, The Greek Christians, particularly, had migrated to Rome in their thousands, looking for work, and were generally despised as a rabble.

Among the Christians who lost their lives after the fire was Peter, the first Bishop of Rome, whose request to be crucified upside down was granted.

In 66, when Nero was in Greece for the Olympic Games, a revolt of the Jews against Rome began in Jerusalem and spread to Judea. The Roman procurator, Florus, had unwisely flouted sacred Jewish space to seize tax arrears from the Temple. Although the priests and the Jewish landowning class opposed action, the rabble seized the opportunity to revolt.

When Nero heard of this, he sent General Vespasian to quell the revolt - but when Nero's death became known in 58 - Vespasian returned to Italy leaving his son, Titus, in charge.

The revolt caused Christians to set themselves apart from Jews because they feared being accused of rebellion, but Romans never stopped thinking of Christianity as a Jewish sect (paradoxically never giving them the same respect as Jews).

Josephus, a Jewish scholar who had been a commander in the revolt, blamed the Romans for the revolt, but clearly the Jews had hated the Romans for a long time, were still waiting for their promised messiah to free them from Roman rule (James, Jesus' brother was stoned to death by the Jewish Sanhedrin in 60 for daring to claim otherwise) and were merely waiting for an excuse to pounce.

Soon after the Jewish revolt in Judea, we had four emperors. They were: Galba, (an old man of 70 who had been Governor of Spain), Otho, (the Governor of Lusitania- Portugal), Vitellius (the Governor of Lower Germany) and, finally triumphant, Vespasian (the general Nero put in charge of suppressing the Jewish revolt of 66, who had the backing Gallus, the Governor of Syria).