'rig year Nero sent Vespasian into Juda. (Joseph. Bell. Yud. iii. 1. 2). Accounts of the war and siege of Jerusalem will be found in another article [ JERUSALEM]. In 68 Nero died. Galba, Otho, and Vitellius followed in quick succession ; and Vespasian himself was elected emperor by the legions in Juda. In A.D. 7o Titus was sent by his father to conduct the war, and after a four months' siege Jerusalem was taken. Josephus states that 1, mo,o00 were killed during the siege (Bell. Yuri. vi. 9. 3), that several were allowed to depart, and an immense number sold to the army and carried captive. These numbers are of course exaggerated [JERusALEm] (cf. Luke xxi. 24).
Under Trajan the Jews again broke out into open revolt, and the disturbances continued under Hadrian. At last, A.D. 131, one Barcochebas, the Son of a Star, was placed at the head of the Jews. Several times the Roman arms were defeated ; but Julius Severus, by reducing their fortresses one by one, finally defeated him in A.D. 135. Dion Cassius says that 58o,000 Jewish people were slain in these battles (lxix. 14). This ;state ment is as extravagant as that of Josephus (vide supra).
In A.D. 136 the emperor Hadrian founded a new city, under the name of lElia Capitolina, to which he gave the privileges of a colony. None but Christians and pagans were allowed to enter (Dion Cass., lxix. 12 ; cf. Gibbon).
The N. T. history falls within the reigns of Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero. Only Augustus (Luke ii. 1), Tiberius (Luke iii. 1), and Claudius (Acts xi. 28 ; xviii. 2), are mentioned, but Nero is alluded to in the Acts from ch. xxv. to the end, and in Phil. iv. 22. The Roman emperor in the N. T. is usually called Caesar (Acts XXV. I I, 12, 2 I), though sometimes Augustus (legaar6s Acts xxv. 21, 25), and once Lord (6 nevi's, Acts xxv. 26). We thus find many characteristics of the Roman rule constantly before us in the N. T. The publicans (Luke iii. 12 ; XiX. 2) ; the tribute money (Matt. xxii. 19) ; soldiers and centurions recruited in Italy (Acts x. ; Caesar the only king (John xix. 15) ; the tetrarchs, Herod, Philip, and Lysanias ; the appeal against the governor (Acts xxv. t) ; Roman money, etc.
In order to illustrate the connection of Rome with Palestine it will be as well to give an account, necessarily brief, of the principal relations of the Empire with the N. T. history and the Jews.
At the time of Augustus- the finest countries of Europe, Asia, and Egypt, with all the northern part of Africa, were comprehended in the Roman Empire. The boundaries in Europe were the Rhine and Danube, in Asia the Euphrates and the deserts of Syria, and in Africa the tract of land known at present under the name of Sahara. Subse quent additions were made by Claudius of Britain, and by Trajan of Dacia. [For a list of the pro vinces, see Gibbon, vol. i. pp. 201-2, ed. Smith, note.] The population at the time of Augustus has been calculated at eighty-five millions, including both sexes, all ages, and every class of inhabitants (Merivale, Hist. of the Rom., vol. iv. p. 45o) ; and Gibbon (Decline and Fall, ch. ii.) reckons the po
pulation at the time of Claudius at about one hun dred and twenty millions.
The entire annies of the Roman Empire are reckoned at 34o,000 men, exclusive of the battalions maintained in Rome itself, not counting the numer ous battalions of auxiliaries levied throughout the Empire (Tac. Ann. iv. 5 ; Merivale, Hist, vol. iii• P. 534). Augustus may also be regarded as the founder of a naval power (Merivale, /. c.), which has been considered to have numbered 21,000 men (De Champagny, des Cifsars, 429), Though it was the endeavour of Augustus to make the government introduced by him appear as possessing the forms of the ancient Republic, he had established in fact an absolute monarchy. The prince united in his own person all the attributes of supreme power. It is true that the senate pos sessed extensive prerogatives. To secure the maintenance of peace in countries which had been subdued by force it became necessary to maintain standing armies in them, and in the year B.o. 27 Augustus arranged that the provinces should be divided between the senate and himself. The go vernors of those provinces which were assigned to the senate were called proconsuls (dveundrot, de puties, A. V. Acts xiii. 7 ; xviii. 12 ; XiX. 38), whatever their previous office may have been (Dion Cass.,liii. 13). The imperial provinces, on the other hand, were governed by a Legatus (nperrgurip) or proprtor (avntrrpcfryyos), even if the officer ap pointed had been consul. The minor districts of the imperial provinces were governed by a procu rator (grirporos, Dion. Cass., liii. is, steward A. V., Matt. xx. 8). Augustus brought all the procurators under his control (Dion Cass., liii. 32). Under the Republic they had managed the affairs of private citizens, but under the Empire they discharged the duties performed by the Qumstors in the senatorial provinces. They controlled the revenue and collected the taxes, and their power extended from these matters to justice and adminis tration (Tac. Hist. i. 11). The procurators of Judma seem to have been under the control of the proconsul of Syria, as Quadratus condemned the indiscretion of the procurator Cumanus (Joseph. Antiq. XX. 6. 3 ; Tac. Ann. xii. 54). They are called governors' (inethewes) in the N. T. The verb (lrycl.Lovetico) is employed in Luke ii. 2 to show the nature of the government of Quirinus over Syria. Asia and Achaia were assigned to the senate, and in each case the title of the governor in the Acts is proconsul (avOtnraros, XVII]. 12 ; xix. 38). Dion Cass. (liii. 12) informs us that Cyprus was retained by the emperor, but Sergius Paulus is called in the Acts (xiii. 7) proconsul.' This is quite correct, as Dion adds that Augustus restored Cyprus to the senate in exchange for another dis trict of the empire. Coins and inscriptions of Cyprus also bear the title Proconsul ' (cf. Cony beare and Howson, Life of St. Paul, vol. i. p. 173, seq. ; Akerman, Num. III. of IV. T., p. 41). The procurator sometimes had the power of life and death, as in the case of Pontius Pilate (Tac.