10-29 Tiberius and the Jewish Messiahs

During this 20 year period (AD 10 - 29) the Roman Emperor Augustus died in AD 14 and was succeeded by his step-son, Tiberius (pictured).

From the start of Roman rule of Judea in 6AD - when Herod's son had failed to keep order - expectations about the imminent arrival of a messiah who would free them from foreign rule were met by several charismatic prophets who attempted, unsuccessfully, to lead the masses in revolt against the Romans.

Jesus of Nazareth was one of these charismatic Jewish prophets, but he was more interested in fulfilling the messianic prophecy and becoming King of the Jews than leading the masses to rebel against the Romans.

His fight, first, was with the priests in charge of the Temple in Jerusalem whose usurious practices were as repugnant to him as his teachings were to them.

Had Jesus succeeded in being recognized as the messiah - the King of the Jews - there is no doubt that his next fight would have been against the Romans, but in persuading the Roman Governor to order the execution of Jesus (ostensibly for treason, but actually for impiety) the Jewish priests succeeded only in empowering the followers of Jesus.

BC10-AD9 Judea Province Ruled by Syria

In this twenty year period from 10BC-AD9 the Celts invade Greece and settle in Turkey about 3 BC (becoming the Galatians); examinations were introduced for public office in China about 6 (AD); trouble broke out in Judea with the Jews; the estimated world population in the year 1 (AD) was about 255,000,000; and Octavian, the Roman Emperor Augustus (pictured) ruled.

The Romans held a strict policy of rule through client kings and had, essentially, come to rule Judea by accident. First through Pompey's establishment of the province of Syria in 64 BC, and second through bad government by the Jews themselves.

When the Jewish dynasty that ruled after the Seleucids came to an end long before in 37BC, a local Jewish general named Herod took over the throne and when Egypt fell to the Romans in 31BC he transferred allegiance to the Romans and survived until 4BC when his kingdom was divided among his three sons.

The son who ruled the Jerusalem area was a failure, and when he was deposed in 6AD the area was organized as the province of Judea under the oversight of the governor of Syria.

From then on, the Jews became hateful towards the Romans who by necessity had to live among them in order to keep peace between them.

The Jews found it impossible to accept foreign rule because their sense of nationhood was based upon a special relationship with their god - laid out in the books of the Hebrew bible - which manifested in the secular success of their state over all enemies, in particular the idea that a "messiah" would free them from oppressors.

The Roman government accommodated local religious sensibilities -- especially concerning Jerusalem and its great Temple to the Jewish god around which all cult practice was centered -- but since the Jews themselves were divided it was difficult not to give offence.

The Romans were particularly upset because they had assisted the Jews in their revolt against the Seleucid dynasty last century and expected gratitude not resentment.

BC50-31 Cleopatra, Julius Caesar and Mark Antony

In the twenty years from 50-31 BC Julius Caesar was murdered in 44 BC and the forces of Cleopatra (pictured) and Mark Antony were defeated in 31 BC.

Julius Caesar's governorship would expire at the end of 49 BC, and so would his immunity from trial (violations of the constitution stemming from his consulship of 59 BC, which could result in his political if not physical death). The key issue was whether or not Caesar could stand for the consulship of 48 BC in absentia, maintaining his immunity.

The optimates were opposed to Caesar's standing in absentia, and in 49 BC, passed a law declaring him a public enemy and demanding his return to Rome to stand trial. At the same time, Pompey was given absolute authority to defend the Roman Republic

When Julius Caesar received this news he proclaimed "alea iacta est" (the die is cast) and crossed the Rubicon River (the boundary between Cisalpine Gaul and Italy) with his army, precipitating another Civil war.

Julius Caesar took Rome without opposition, and then marched south to stop Pompey (who was trying to withdraw from Brundisium across the Adriatic Sea to Greece). Caesar came close, but Pompey and his armies were able to escape at the last minute.

In 48 BC Pompey controlled the seas -- and his legions heavily outnumbered Caesar's -- but Caesar's legions were experienced veterans and he was able to solidify control over the western Mediterranean, notably at Massilia and in Spain. Then he invaded Greece.

Caesar and Pompey first faced each other at the Battle of Dyrrhachium, where Pompey won but failed to follow up on his victory, allowing Caesar to regroup and win a decisive victory at the Battle of Pharsalus. Pompey fled to Egypt, where he hoped to find assistance.

Caesar, pursuing Pompey, arrived in Alexandria, capital of Ptolemaic Egypt, to find the breadbasket of the Mediterranean in a state of civil war. Agents of the young king, Ptolemy XIII, had assassinated Pompey and presented his head to Caesar, believing it would please him and that he would support Ptolemy against the ambitions of his sister, Cleopatra.

Caesar, however, began an affair with Cleopatra -- precipitating a dangerous battle -- but he triumphed and placed Cleopatra on the throne along with another brother, Ptolemy XIV.

Cleopatra later gave birth to Caesar's son, Caesarion, titled Ptolemy Caesar.

In 47 BC Caesar advanced to Asia Minor upon hearing of an invasion led by Pharnaces II of Pontus, the son of the old Roman enemy Mithridates. He won a quick victory at the Battle of Zela and it was then that Caesar famously said: "Veni, Vidi, Vici" (I came, I saw, I conquered).

In 46 BC Caesar went to North Africa to deal with the pro-Pompeian forces under Cato the Younger and Titus Labienus. After a slight setback in the Battle of Ruspina he defeated them at the Battle of Thapsus. Cato committed suicide. In 45 BC, he went to Spain, and won the final victory over the pro-Pompeian forces at the Battle of Munda. He then returned to Rome.

Caesar launched many reforms in Rome. He regulated the distribution of free grain, reformed the calendar -- changing from a Lunar to a Solar calendar and giving his gens name to the 7th month (July) -- and reformed the debt problem. He accepted enormous honors from the Senate, being named Pater Patriae (Father of his Country) but when he began wearing the purple toga of the old Roman kings he alarmed the aristocratic republican Senators.

In 45 BC he was named dictator for ten years and in 44 BC he was appointed dictator for life, further alarming the aristocratic republican senators. A group of about 60 senators, led by Gaius Cassius Longinus and Marcus Junius Brutus, conspired to assassinate Caesar in order to save the republic. They carried out their deed on the Ides of March, 15 March 44 BC.

After Caesar's assassination, Marcus Antonius, incited the mob against the assassins who panicked and fled to Greece. In Caesar's will, his grand-nephew and adopted son Octavian was named as his political heir. Octavian raised a small army from among Caesar's veterans, and the Second Triumvirate was formed -- Antony, Octavian, and Antony's ally Marcus Aemilius Lepidus. In 42 BC, they followed the assassins into Greece and defeated them at the Battle of Philippi. To pay the troops, about 22 of the largest Italian cities suffered confiscations to provide land for the veterans. Proscriptions were declared against about 300 senators and 2000 equites, including Cicero, who was killed at his villa.

In 40 BC, Antony, Octavian, and Lepidus negotiated the Pact of Brundisium. Antony received all the richer provinces in the east, namely Achaea, Macedonia and Epirus (Greece), Bithynia, Pontus and Asia (Turkey), Syria, Cyprus and Cyrenaica. Octavian received the Roman provinces of the west -- Italy, Gaul (France), Gallia Belgica (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg), and Hispania (Spain and Portugal). Lepidus was given the minor province of Africa (Tunisia) to govern.

In the west, Octavian and Lepidus had to deal with Sextus Pompeius, the surviving son of Pompey who had taken control of Sicily and was running pirate operations in the Mediterranean, endangering the flow of the crucial Egyptian grain to Rome. In 36 BC, Lepidus, while besieging Sextus forces in Sicily, ignored Octavian's orders that no surrender would be allowed. Octavian then bribed the legions of Lepidus, and they deserted to him. This stripped Lepidus of all power and the contest for supreme power was then between Antony and Octavian.

Antony, in the east, was very close to Ptolemaic Egypt, then the richest state of all and his romance with Cleopatra may not have been entirely a 'love match'. He was waging an unsuccessful war against the Parthians and when war finally broke out between Antony and Octavian in 31 BC, approximately 200 senators, one-third of the Senate, abandoned Octavian to support Antony and Cleopatra.
Cleopatra, the Queen of Egypt, was of Macedonian Greek ethnicity and had given birth to three children by Antony. In 34 BC, at the Donations of Alexandria, Antony bequeathed much of the eastern half of his empire to these children and asked to be buried in his beloved Alexandria. In Rome, this donation along with his divorce of Octavia Minor and his affair with Cleopatra was used by Octavian in a vicious propaganda war accusing Antony of deserting the cause of Rome. He was careful not to attack Antony directly. Instead, the entire blame was placed on Cleopatra.

The final confrontation of the Roman Republic occurred on 2 September 31 BC, at the naval Battle of Actium where the fleet of Octavian under the command of Agrippa defeated the combined fleet of Antony and Cleopatra and the two lovers fled to Egypt.

Before this, in 37BC, Herod had established a new Jewish dynasty to rule Judea.

how were the pagans converted to christianity?

Despite embracing Christianity, Emperor Constantine still hedged his bets by celebrating the Roman gods -- as did just about everyone else in the Roman empire!

The success of Roman Christianity was due entirely to the fact that pagan gods and celebrations were incorporated into the new religion.

It was not difficult to subdue and convert pagan populations when their lives and beliefs remained essentially unchanged.

For instance, the Roman Feast of Saturnalia on the winter solstice was converted to became the official celebration of the birth of Jesus. December 25 in the year 1AD was not the birth of Jesus, and even though most people now accept that the Romans got it wrong - our society still perpetuates the myth of His birthday as well as the calendar upon which it is based.

Herod, the King of the Jews in Judea at the time Jesus was born - who decreed the killing of all male children under the age of two and caused Mary and Joseph to flee to Egypt with their son Jesus - has been found to have died between a lunar eclipse in March and the Jewish Passover of April in the year 4BC (four years before the year ascribed to the birth of Jesus).

Also, Jesus cannot possibly have been born in December because in winter time it was a Talmudic custom for shepherds to keep their flocks indoors between November and March.

If the shepherds were out watching their flocks at night when they saw the Star of Bethlehem - probably Jupiter in its full glory - then on astronomical reckoning Jesus had to be born between April and October in the year 5BC or 6BC. Probably September in the year 6BC because at that time the sun would be setting as Jupiter would be rising, making it a glorious sight in the night sky.

In that most of the Christian celebrations conveniently coincided with traditional Pagan festivals - and Jesus was portrayed as a good man, teaching love and forgiveness and doing a great deal to help the sick and poor, as did many of the Pagan priests - it cannot have been too hard to convert Pagans to the early form of Christianity.

Later on, of course, Roman Christianity became quite brutal and would not tolerate any rival beliefs.