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.

70-89 Mt Vesuvius Erupts, Jewish & British Enslavement

During this 20 year period the Roman Emperor Vespasian (pictured) died in 79 and was succeeded by his son, Titus.

Titus had commanded the war against Judea after his father returned to Rome in 68, and in AD 70 was responsible for the destruction of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.

As if a punishment from the gods, Mt Vesuvius erupted nine years later in 79, burying Pompeii and Herculaneum in southern Italy.

Titus died in 81 and was succeeded by his brother Domitian who was troubled by wars against the Germans, Hungarians and Romanians.

In 83, Agricola, the Roman Governor of Britain, finally subjugated the Britons at the Battle of Mons Graupius. It was a terrible defeat for the Britons who did not want to become slaves.

The Roman Empire was ruled by rich and powerful landowning Italian families who had an army of slaves working on the land, and a small number of household slaves who were mostly cultured and hopeful of winning their freedom.

The slaves came from all parts of the world - mostly from conquered nations, although a few were native born slaves of slaves.

The most feared among the slaves were the newly arrived Jews captured after the Judean Revolt of 66. They were easy to distinguish from the fair-skinned Germanic and British slaves and the black-skinned African slaves.