Judaea was a Roman province from 6 to 135 AD, which at its height encompassed the regions of Judea, Idumea, Peraea, Samaria, and Galilee, as well as parts of the coastal plain of the southern Levant. At its height, it encompassed much of the core territories of the former Kingdom of Judaea, which had been ruled by the Hasmonean and Herodian dynasties in previous decades. The name Judaea (like the similar Judea) derives from the Iron Age Kingdom of Judah, which was centered in the region of Judea.
Since the Roman Republic's conquest of Judaea in 63 BC, which abolished the independent Hasmonean monarchy, Rome maintained a system of semi-autonomous vassalage in the region. After Hasmonean ruler Antigonus II Mattathias briefly regained the throne, he was overthrown by Herod, who was appointed King of the Jews by the Roman Senate and ruled Judaea until his death in 4 BC. The province's formal incorporation into the Roman Empire was enacted by Augustus in 6 AD following an appeal by the populace against the misrule of Herod's son, Herod Archelaus (r. 4 BC – AD 6). The administrative capital was relocated from Jerusalem to the coastal city of Caesarea Maritima.
Over the six decades following the province's establishment, relations between the majority Jewish population and Roman authorities were marked by frequent crises. With the onset of direct rule, the official census instituted by Publius Sulpicius Quirinius, the governor of Roman Syria, caused tensions and led to an uprising by Jewish rebel Judas of Galilee (6 AD). Other notable events in the region include the crucifixion of Jesus (which led to the emergence of Christianity) and in 37 AD Emperor Caligula ordered the erection of a statue of himself in the Second Temple. A brief respite came under Agrippa I (r. 41–44 AD), a popular ruler who temporarily restored Jewish self-governance under Roman auspices. However, after his death, Judaea—now encompassing Galilee and Peraea—reverted to direct Roman rule, and unrest gradually escalated. In the following years, prophetic figures sought to gain followers, Sicarii assassins targeted officials, and corrupt and brutal governors—most notably Gessius Florus (r. 64–66 AD) further inflamed tensions.
In 66 AD, unrest in Caesarea, followed by clashes in Jerusalem, ignited the First Jewish–Roman War. The Romans, under Vespasian and later his son Titus, systematically crushed the rebellion, culminating in the razing of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD. The Jewish population recovered within a generation and, in 132 AD, launched the Bar Kokhba revolt in response to Hadrian's plans to construct Aelia Capitolina, a Roman colony dedicated to Jupiter, on the ruins of Jerusalem. The rebels briefly established an independent Jewish state, but the Roman suppression of the revolt in 135–136 resulted in the widespread destruction and near-depopulation of the region of Judea. At that point, Judea was officially renamed Syria Palaestina.
Background
Judaea, an independent state under the Hasmonean dynasty, was conquered by the Roman Republic in 63 BCE. At the time, it was embroiled in a civil war between Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II, sons of Queen Salome Alexandra, both vying for the throne. Roman general Pompey intervened, besieging and capturing Jerusalem. In the aftermath, he appointed Hyrcanus II as ethnarch and High Priest, but denied him the title of king.
In 40 BCE, Antigonus II Mattathias, son of Aristobolus II, temporarily reclaimed the throne with Parthian support but was overthrown in 37 BCE by Herod, whom the Roman Senate had appointed "King of the Jews." Herod ruled Judaea as a client kingdom of Rome until his death in 4 BCE. Widely despised and resented by the public, he maintained close relations with the Romans. During this period, the remaining Hasmonean heirs were eliminated, and the grand port city of Caesarea Maritima was constructed."Founded in the years 22–10 or 9 B.C. by Herod the Great, close to the ruins of a small Phoenician naval station named Strato's Tower (Stratonos Pyrgos, Turns Stratonis), which flourished during the 3d to 1st c. B.C. This small harbor was situated on the N part of the site. Herod dedicated the new town and its port (limen Sebastos) to Caesar Augustus. During the Early Roman period, Caesarea was the seat of the Roman procurators of the province of Judea. Vespasian, proclaimed emperor at Caesarea, raised it to the rank of Colonia Prima Flavia Augusta, and later Alexander Severus raised it to the rank of Metropolis Provinciae Syriae Palestinae." A. Negev, "CAESAREA MARITIMA Palestine, Israel" in: Richard Stillwell et al. (eds.), The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites (1976).
Herod died in 4 BCE, and his kingdom was partitioned into a tetrarchy and divided among three of his sons. Archelaus served as ethnarch of Judea (including Jerusalem), Samaria, and Idumaea, while Herod Antipas governed Galilee and Peraea, and Philip ruled over Gaulanitis, Trachonitis and Batanaea. Archelaus' rule of Judea was so gravely atrocious that he was dismissed in 6 CE by the first Roman emperor, Augustus, after an appeal from his own subjects. Following his removal, Judaea was annexed as the Roman province of Judaea. Herod Antipas continued to rule Galilee and Peraea until his dismissal by Emperor Caligula in 39 CE.
Geography
When Judaea became a Roman province in 6 CE, its territory corresponded to the domains previously ruled by Herod Archelaus under the Herodian tetrarchy, which comprised the districts of Judea, Samaria, and Idumaea, including major urban centers such as Jerusalem, Caesarea Maritima, Sebaste, and Joppa. After 44 CE, when direct Roman rule was restored following the reign of Herod Agrippa I, the province was expanded to include Galilee and Peraea.
The New Testament reflects a province divided among Jews, Samaritans and Gentiles.
History
Revolt and removal of Herod Archelaus Following the death of Herod the Great, the Herodian Kingdom of Judea was divided into the Herodian Tetrarchy, jointly ruled by Herod's sons and sister: Herod Archelaus (who ruled Judea, Samaria and Idumea), Herod Philip (who ruled Batanea, Trachonitis as well as Auranitis), Herod Antipas (who ruled Galilee and Peraea) and Salome I (who briefly ruled Jamnia).
A messianic revolt erupted in Judea in 4 BCE because of Archelaus's incompetence; the revolt was brutally crushed by the Legate of Syria, Publius Quinctilius Varus, who occupied Jerusalem and crucified 2,000 Jewish rebels.Josephus, The Jewish War, Book 2, Chapter 56Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book 17, Chapters 271-272
Because of his failure to properly rule Judea, Archelaus was removed from his post by Emperor Augustus in 6 CE, while Judea, Samaria, and Idumea came under direct Roman administration.
This event had significant and ever-lasting effects on Jewish history, and the development of Christianity.
Under a prefect (6–41 CE)
The Judean province did not initially include Galilee, Gaulanitis (today's Golan), nor Peraea or the Decapolis. Its revenue was of little importance to the Roman treasury; however, it controlled the land and coastal sea routes to the "bread basket" of Egypt and was a buffer against the Parthian Empire. The capital was moved from Jerusalem to Caesarea Maritima.A History of the Jewish People, H. H. Ben-Sasson editor, 1976, page 247: "When Judea was converted into a Roman province [in 6 CE, page 246], Jerusalem ceased to be the administrative capital of the country. The Romans moved the governmental residence and military headquarters to Caesarea. The centre of government was thus removed from Jerusalem, and the administration became increasingly based on inhabitants of the Hellenistic cities (Sebaste, Caesarea and others)."
Augustus appointed Publius Sulpicius Quirinius to the post of Legate of Syria and he conducted a tax census of Syria and Judea in 6 CE, which triggered the revolt of Judas of Galilee; the revolt was quickly crushed by Quirinius.
Judea was not a senatorial province, nor an imperial province, but instead was a "satellite of Syria"H. H. Ben-Sasson, A History of the Jewish Peoples, page 247–248: "Consequently, the province of Judea may be regarded as a satellite of Syria, although, in view of the measure of independence left to its governor in domestic affairs, it would be wrong to say that in the Julio-Claudian era Judea was legally part of the province of Syria." governed by a prefect who was a knight of the Equestrian Order (as was that of Roman Egypt), not a former consul or praetor of senatorial rank. Quirinius appointed Coponius as first prefect of Judea.Josephus, Antiquities 17.355 & 18.1–2; The prefect inherited the Herodian military forces, consisting of one cavalry unit and five infantry cohorts.
Still, Jews living in the province maintained some form of independence and could judge offenders by their own laws, including capital offenses, until .Babylonian Talmud, Avodah Zarah 8b; ibid, Sanhedrin 41a; ibid, Shabbat 15a; Jerusalem Talmud, Sanhedrin 1:1 (1b) Judea in the early Roman period was divided into five administrative districts with centers in Jerusalem, Gadara, Amathus, Jericho, and Sepphoris.
In 30–33 CE, Roman prefect Pontius Pilate had Jesus of Nazareth crucified on the charge of sedition, an act that led to the birth of Christianity.Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book 18, Chapter 3, Paragraph 3Tacitus, Annals, Book 15, Chapter 44 In 36 CE another messianic revolt erupted near Mount Gerizim, under the lead of a Samaritan, and was quickly crushed by Pilate; the Samaritans complained against Pilate's brutality to the Legate of Syria Lucius Vitellius the Elder, who removed Pilate from his post and sent him to Rome to account, replacing him with an acting prefect called Marcellus.Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book 18, Chapter 4, Paragraphs 1-2
In 37 CE, Emperor Caligula ordered the erection of a statue of himself in the Temple in Jerusalem,Philo of Alexandria, On the Embassy to Gaius XXX.203. a demand in conflict with Jewish monotheism.Philo of Alexandria, On the Embassy to Gaius XVI.115. The Legate of Syria, Publius Petronius, fearing civil war if the order was carried out, delayed implementing it for nearly a year.Philo of Alexandria, On the Embassy to Gaius XXXI.213. King Herod Agrippa I finally convinced Caligula to reverse the order.Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews XVIII.8.1. Caligula later issued a second order to have his statue erected in the Temple of Jerusalem, but he was murdered before the statue reached Jerusalem and his successor Claudius rescinded the order.Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews XVIII.8. The "Crisis under Caligula" has been proposed as the first open break between Rome and Jews.H. H. Ben-Sasson, A History of the Jewish People, Harvard University Press, 1976, , The Crisis Under Gaius Caligula, pages 254–256: "The reign of Gaius Caligula (37–41) witnessed the first open break between the Jews and the Julio-Claudian empire. Until then – if one accepts Sejanus' heyday and the trouble caused by the census after Archelaus' banishment – there was usually an atmosphere of understanding between the Jews and the empire ... These relations deteriorated seriously during Caligula's reign, and, though after his death the peace was outwardly re-established, considerable bitterness remained on both sides. ... Caligula ordered that a golden statue of himself be set up in the Temple in Jerusalem. ... Only Caligula's death, at the hands of Roman conspirators (41), prevented the outbreak of a Jewish–Roman war that might well have spread to the entire East."
Autonomy under Herod Agrippa (41–44)