The city of Rome was the centre of a large empire at the time of Jesus. The Empire was ruled by an emperor, at the time Jesus was born the Emperor’s name was Augustus. The Romans spoke the Latin language. The name for ’emperor’ in Latin was Caesar.
When the Romans took over a country they built fortresses for their soldiers and put a Governor in to rule on behalf of the Emperor. The Romans built good straight roads, they had houses with central heating and running water. They believed in many God’s. Like the Greeks who went before them, they had gods for every occasion, Mars was the god of war, Venus the god of love, Jupiter the king of the gods and Neptune the god of the sea. Even today many great statues have survived of Roman gods.
The Romans left some local rulers in the countries they had conquered, if they promised to be obedient to Rome and hand over taxes. Herod was one of these rulers. The Jews (the people of Judah) like most other people, did not like being ruled by a foreign country and looked forward one day to their freedom. There were Jewish freedom fighters, known as zealots (no doubt the Romans called them terrorists!). Eventually 70 years after the birth of Jesus, the Romans got tired of Jewish revolts and completely destroyed Jerusalem, the capital city of the Jews.
Working it Out
1. Did the Romans reach your country between 100 BC and 400AD? Have you ever visited any old site that was built during the Roman Empire? Describe some ancient Roman buildings that are still standing today.(Clue: Rome or many other places in Italy, Bath or Hadrian’s Wall in England)
2. What did the Romans bring to the countries they conquered?
3. Can you find out when the Romans became Christians? Clue: look up ‘Christianity’ Can you find out anything about how this change came about and what it involved?
4. Which was bigger, the Roman Empire in the year 100 AD or the European Union in 2000 AD?
5. What can you find out about two of Jesus’ apostles, Simon the Zealot and Matthew the tax collector to suggest that they might not have seen eye-to-eye about everything? See Matthew 9:9-13 and Luke 6:16.
Remember that the tax collectors collected taxes for the Romans.
