Notes

In 4 BC, Augustus had to deal with Judea, most of what is Israel’s territory nowadays. Herod died that year, and stated in his testament his will to divide the kingdom he conquered, which was Rome’s client, between his three remaining sons: Archelaus as the king of Judea, including Samaria and Idumea, Antipas as the king of Galilee and Phillip as the king of Traconitis. However, this division had to be allowed by the emperor. Therefore, the three of them headed to the capital of the Empire to defend their own interests. When they arrived, they found, in the Temple of Apollo, an embassy of fifty men from Jerusalem protesting against the continuance of Herodian dynasty’s evil governance and asking Rome to take control of Judea, which could be annexed to Syria as an independent province. Augustus, at that moment, ignored the embassy’s requests and kept Herod’s will’s division. However, Archelaus received the title of ethnarc instead of that of king. This was because before he went to Rome, he attended a few requests from the people after his father’s death and massacred 3,000 Jews who were rebelling against a slaughter Herod had committed. Augustus didn’t like that happening and the fact that he was acting like a king before he was even named one. Thus, he was denied the kingdom, but the emperor said that if he showed he deserved it, he would grant him with the crown.

Which didn’t happen. Archelaus proved to be an awful governor. While he was in Rome, there were huge revolts in Israel, which he couldn’t deal with and required help from the Roman governor of Syria. All of the three legions placed there were called upon to help in the operation. Moreover, he crucified 2,000 more people, didn’t catch all of the leaders and made a deal with the brother of one of them, which didn’t cause a good impression. In the Bible, Matthew 2:22 says that Joseph, Mary and Jesus, when they were coming back from the exile in Egypt done with the purpose of running away from the Massacre of the Innocents, were afraid to pass through the territories governed by Archelau.

The decrees Julius Caesar had made on behalf of the Jews living in Cyrene and Asia Minor were renovated by Augustus in 1 BC. In his “Edict of Augustus On The Jewish Rights”, he stated that the Jewish people, because they had been loyal to Caesar years before, would have the right to keep their habits and customs in accordance with their ancient laws, would be allowed to make offers and send them to the Temple of Jerusalem, could not be required in Roman demands on the Shabbat or the previous day after the ninth hour, and proclaimed that if someone was caught stealing the Jewish holy books and funds, from a synagogue or a man’s house, their properties would be brought to Rome and they would be considered to be criminals.

During the Augustan age, the Jewish population of Rome increased considerably, and synagogues, which started to proliferate, offered honors to the emperor. The Jews demonstrated high affection to the laws of Augustus on their rights, whose well-treatment did not repeat so early in the Roman Empire.

In 6 AD, after ten years of terrible management by Archelaus in Judea, a new Jewish embassy remade the request they had made to Rome years earlier. And this time, Augustus agreed. He made Judea an official imperial province and banned Archelau to France.