Difference between revisions of "Roman Empire The"

Roman Empire The <ref name="term_74646" />  

<p> [[Roman]] Empire, The. The first historic mention of Rome in the [[Bible]] is in 1 [[Maccabees]] 1:10, about the year 161 B.C. In the year 65 B.C., when [[Syria]] was made a Roman province by Pompey, the Jews were still governed by one of the [[Asmonaean]] princes. The next year, Pompey himself marched an army into [[Judea]] and took Jerusalem. From this time, the Jews were practically under the government of Rome. </p> <p> Finally, Antipater's son, [[Herod]] the Great, was made king by Antony's interest, B.C. 40, and confirmed in the kingdom by Augustus, B.C. 30. The Jews, however, were all this time tributaries of Rome, and their princes, in reality, were Roman procurators, On the banishment of Archelaus, A.D. 6, Judea became a mere appendage of the province of Syria, and was governed by a Roman procurator, who resided at Caesarea. Such were the relations of the [[Jewish]] people to the Roman government, at the time when the New [[Testament]] history begins. </p> <p> Extent of the empire. - Cicero's description of the [[Greek]] states and colonies as a "fringe on the skirts of barbarism" has been well applied to the Roman dominions, before the conquests of Pompey and Caesar. The Roman empire was still confined to a narrow strip encircling the [[Mediterranean]] Sea. Pompey added Asia Minor and Syria. [[Caesar]] added Gaul. The generals of [[Augustus]] overran the northwest [[Portion]] of [[Spain]] and the country between the Alps and the Danube. </p> <p> The boundaries of the empire were now the Atlantic on the west, the [[Euphrates]] on the east, the deserts of Africa, the cataracts of the Nile and the [[Arabian]] deserts on the south, the British Channel, the Rhine, the Danube and the [[Black]] Sea on the north. The only subsequent conquests of importance were those of Britain by [[Claudius]] and of [[Dacia]] by Trajan. The only independent powers of importance were the [[Parthians]] on the east, and the Germans on the north. The population of the empire in the time of Augustus has been calculated at 85,000,000. </p> <p> The provinces. - The usual fate of a country conquered by Rome was to be come a subject province, governed directly from Rome by officers sent out for that purpose. Sometimes, however, petty sovereigns were left in possession of a nominal independence on the borders or within the natural limits of the province. Augustus divided the provinces into two classes - (1) Imperial; (2) Senatorial; retaining in his own hands, for obvious reasons, those provinces where the presence of a large military force was necessary, and committing the peaceful and unarmed provinces to the senate. </p> <p> The New Testament writers invariably designate the governors of senatorial provinces by the correct title, anthupatoi, proconsuls. Acts 13:7; Acts 18:12; Acts 19:38. For the governor of an imperial province, properly styled "legatus Caesaris", the word, hegemon, (governor), is used in the New Testament. The provinces were heavily taxed for the benefit of Rome and her citizens. They are said to have been better governed under the empire, than under the commonwealth, and those of the emperor, better than those of the senate. </p> <p> The condition of the Roman empire at the time when [[Christianity]] appeared has often been dwelt upon as affording obvious illustrations of St. Paul's expression that the "fullness of time had come." Galatians 4:4. The general peace within the limits of the empire, the formation of military roads, the suppression of piracy, the march of the legions, the voyages of the corn fleets, the general in crease of traffic, the spread of the [[Latin]] language in the West as Greek had already spread in the East, the external unity of the empire, offered facilities hitherto unknown for the spread of a world-wide religion. </p> <p> The tendency, too, of despotism like that of the Roman empire to reduce all its subjects to a dead level was a powerful instrument in breaking down the pride of privileged races and national religious, and familiarizing men with the truth that "God had made of one blood all nations on the face of the earth." Acts 17:24; Acts 17:26. But still more striking than this outward preparation for the diffusion of the gospel was the appearance of a deep and wide-spread corruption, which seemed to defy any human remedy. </p>

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