Romusalem

(February 15)

In this lecture we learned about the Roman conquest and rule in Jerusalem which began in 63 BCE. The Roman governor, Pompey, was the one who attacked and annexed Jerusalem for Rome. We also learned about other important figures in this time. One particular significant person in this period if Herod, who is known as Herod the Great. He first started out as a local ruler of Galilee when his father, Antipates, was installed as procurator. However, when his father was killed, he takes revenge for him. As he does this, he slowly rises to greatness. He first becomes king of Judea, then controls Galilee, Samaria and Idumea. Then he gets Jerusalem. Herod rules as a client king, where he tries to be good to both Rome and Jerusalem. He is sensitive to the Jews, for example, he does not put faces on their coin, yet he still does what Rome orders him to do. He was able to keep the Jews from rebelling since he knew the Jewish traditions, even though he is not a Jew, because his homeland, Idumea, was Judaized. Although Herod was a brutal dictator and ruled from 37 to 4 BCE, his way of dealing with the people worked.
In addition, Herod the Great was really known for his massive building projects. Even though most of these buildings represented himself, these projects gave people jobs. This means that a lot of people were working. He built the Herodian Temple Mount, which is referred to as the third temple, because many people believed that the second temple was not as great nor as nice as the first. He did not like that so he decided to build the temple mount since the second temple was not destroyed. Therefore, Herod expanded the temple and constructed the wall around it.
Herod built many other great buildings, such as the theater. aqueduct, and port at Caesarea. He even built a city south of Jerusalem. It looked like a mountain that was caved in at the top. This appeared to be the ultimate fortress.
In this lecture, we also discussed the existence of Jesus. Although there is no archeological evidence for him, many scholars do believe that he lived.