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The Roman historian and senator Tacitus referred to Jesus,his execution by Pontius Pilate,and the existence of early Christians in Rome in his final work,Annals,book 15,chapter 44.
Vespasian was Roman emperor from 69 to 79. The last emperor to reign in the Year of the Four Emperors,he founded the Flavian dynasty,which ruled the Empire for 27 years. His fiscal reforms and consolidation of the empire brought political stability and a vast building program.
The 60s decade ran from January 1,AD 60,to December 31,AD 69.
Herod Agrippa,also known as Herod II or Agrippa I,was the last Jewish king of Judea. He was a grandson of Herod the Great and the father of Herod Agrippa II,the last known king from the Herodian dynasty. He was acquaintance or friend of Roman emperors and even played crucial roles in internal Roman politics.
Pontius Pilate was the fifth governor of the Roman province of Judaea,serving under Emperor Tiberius from 26/27 to 36/37 AD. He is best known for being the official who presided over the trial of Jesus and ultimately ordered his crucifixion. Pilate's importance in Christianity is underscored by his prominent place in both the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds. Because the gospels portray Pilate as reluctant to execute Jesus,the Ethiopian Church believes that Pilate became a Christian and venerates him as both a martyr and a saint,a belief which is historically shared by the Coptic Church,with a feast day on 19 or 25 June,respectively.
Herod Antipas was a 1st-century ruler of Galilee and Perea. He bore the title of tetrarch and is referred to as both "Herod the Tetrarch" and "King Herod" in the New Testament,although he never actually held the title of king. He was a son of Herod the Great and a grandson of Antipater the Idumaean. He is widely known today for accounts in the New Testament of his role in events that led to the executions of John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth. His father,Herod the Great,was alleged to have ordered the Massacre of the Innocents,marking the earliest Biblical account of the concerns of the government in Jerusalem regarding Jesus's existence.
Joseph ben Caiaphas,known simply as Caiaphas in the New Testament,was the Jewish high priest during the years of Jesus' ministry,according to Josephus. The Gospels of Matthew,Luke and John indicate he was an organizer of the plot to kill Jesus. He famously presided over the Sanhedrin trial of Jesus. The primary sources for Caiaphas' life are the New Testament,and the writings of Josephus. The latter records he was made high priest by the Roman procurator Valerius Gratus after Simon ben Camithus had been deposed.
Most scholars who study the historical Jesus and early Christianity believe that the canonical gospels and the life of Jesus must be viewed within their historical and cultural context,rather than purely in terms of Christian orthodoxy. They look at Second Temple Judaism,the tensions,trends,and changes in the region under the influence of Hellenism and the Roman occupation,and the Jewish factions of the time,seeing Jesus as a Jew in this environment;and the written New Testament as arising from a period of oral gospel traditions after his death.
Tiberius Julius Alexander was an equestrian governor and general in the Roman Empire. Born into a wealthy Jewish family of Alexandria but abandoning or neglecting the Jewish religion,he rose to become the 2nd procurator of Judea under Claudius. While Prefect of Egypt (66–69),he employed his legions against the Alexandrian Jews in a brutal response to ethnic violence,and was instrumental in the Emperor Vespasian's rise to power. In 70,he participated in the Siege of Jerusalem as Titus' second-in-command. He became the most powerful Jew of his age,and is ranked as one of the most prominent Jews in military history.
Judaea was a Roman province from 6 to 132 CE,which incorporated the Levantine regions of Judea,Samaria and Idumea,extending over parts of the former regions of the Hasmonean and Herodian kingdoms of Judea. The name Judaea was derived from the Iron Age Kingdom of Judah.
Marcus Antonius Julianus was the 8th procurator of Judea from 66 to 70,during the time of the First Jewish–Roman War.
Matthew 27:2 is the second verse of the twenty-seventh chapter of the twenty-seventh chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. Jesus has just seen condemned by the Jewish Sanhedrin,and in this verse is presented to Pontius Pilate.
Cuspius Fadus was an Ancient Roman eques and the 1st procurator of Iudaea Province in 44–46.
The Herodian dynasty was a royal dynasty of Idumaean (Edomite) descent,ruling the Herodian Kingdom of Judea and later the Herodian Tetrarchy as a vassal state of the Roman Empire. The Herodian dynasty began with Herod the Great,who assumed the throne of Judea,with Roman support,bringing down the century-old Hasmonean Kingdom. His kingdom lasted until his death in 4 BCE,when it was divided among his sons as a tetrarchy,which lasted for about 10 years. Most of those tetrarchies,including Judea proper,were incorporated into Judaea Province from 6 CE,though limited Herodian de facto kingship continued until Agrippa I's death in 44 CE and nominal title of kingship continued until 92 CE,when the last Herodian monarch,Agrippa II,died and Rome assumed full power over his de jure domain.
Sextus Attius Suburanus Aemilianus,commonly abbreviated as Suburanus,was a Roman eques who helped Trajan consolidate his position as emperor. Originally procurator of Gallia Belgica,Suburanus was appointed prefect of the Roman imperial bodyguard,known as the Praetorian Guard,in the year 98 and brought this important military unit under Trajan's control. For his achievement,at the end of his command of the Guard,Suburanus was adlected into the Roman senate inter praetores,then held the suffect consulship as the colleague of the consul posterior Quintus Articuleius Paetus in AD 101.
Marullus was the 7th Roman Prefect of the Roman province of Judea 38-41 under Caligula,37–41.
The procuratorial coinage of Roman Judaea was minted by the prefects and procurators of the province between AD 6 and 66 in only one denomination and size,the bronze prutah.
Procurator was a title of certain officials in ancient Rome who were in charge of the financial affairs of a province,or imperial governor of a minor province.
Publius Petronius was a Roman senator,who was active during the reigns of Caligula and Claudius. He was suffect consul in the second half of the year 19,replacing Lucius Norbanus Balbus. The sortition also awarded him the proconsulate of Asia;however,Petronius is best known as having appointed legatus or governor of Syria in 39,probably arriving in the country late in the year. A.A. Barrett lists him as an example of the "excellent appointments" made by an emperor often dismissed as mentally unbalanced.
The Pilate cycle is a group of various pieces of early Christian literature that purport to either be written by Pontius Pilate,or else otherwise closely describe his activities and the Passion of Jesus. Unlike the four gospels,these later writings were not canonized in the New Testament,and hence relegated to a status of apocrypha. Some writings were quite obscure,with only a few ancient textual references known today;they merely survived through happenstance,and may not have been particularly widely read by early Christians in the Roman Empire and Christians in the Middle Ages. Others were more popular. The most notable example was the Gospel of Nicodemus,which proved quite popular and influential in medieval and Renaissance Christianity.
References
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Gotthard Deutsch and Samuel Krauss (1901–1906). "Procurators". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia . New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
