by Paulo Barata
of her second child in the summer of 65, she quarreled fiercely with Nero over his spending too much time at the races. In a fit of rage, Nero kicked her in the abdomen, so causing her death.
Porcius Festus
Procurator of Judaea
Porcius Festus was procurator of Judaea from about AD 59 to 62, succeeding Antonius Felix. His exact time in office is not known.
Festus inherited all of the problems of his predecessor in regard to the Roman practice of creating civic privileges for Jews. Only one other issue bedeviled his administration, the controversy between Agrippa II and the priests in Jerusalem regarding the wall erected at the temple to break the view of the new wing of Agrippa's palace.
During his administration, Jewish hostility to Rome was greatly inflamed by the civic privileges issue. Feelings were aroused which played an important part in the closely following Jewish War of AD 66.
In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul had his final hearing before Festus.
Publius C. Thrasea
Father in law of Priscus, senator,
Publius Petronius
Governor of Roman Syria
Publius Petronius was appointed by Caligula, as Governor (Legate) of Syria in AD 39, probably arriving in the country late in the year.
As Governor of all Syria, Petronius was assisted by lesser officials in charge of various areas. The Prefect of Judea at this time was Marcellus who had arrived only a year earlier, and at about the same time as Petronius' appointment Herod Agrippa I had Galilee and Peraea added to his domains.
Sometime in the winter of AD 39/40 the Greek population of Jamnia in Judea erected an altar to the imperial cult (worship of the emperor) and the resident Jews promptly tore it down, resulting in serious communal rioting. The destruction of an altar for his own worship was apparently taken as a personal insult by Caligula who instructed Petronius that the temple at Jerusalem should be converted into an imperial shrine with an enormous statue of the emperor in the guise of the Romans' supreme god Jupiter.
This proposal struck at the very heart of the religion of the Jews who were an important element of the population and business sector of most cities throughout the empire. Petronius had already made a preliminary study of Jewish philosophy and so was aware of the troubles that were brewing.
He ordered the construction of the statue in Sidon but told the sculptors to be in no hurry while he sought to negotiate with the Jews. He marched his two legions to Ptolomais on the border of Galilee where he was met with a massive demonstration. Leaving his army, he went on to Tiberias, capital of Galilee, where he met a high profile delegation which made it clear that they were being asked to accept the impossible.
Petronius withdrew his forces and bought more time while he wrote to Caligula with an appeal to change his mind in view of the dangerous course that events were taking. In the meanwhile, Agrippa, arrived back in Rome and persuaded Caligula to rescind the order in exchange for Jewish promises not to interfere with the imperial cult outside of Jerusalem.
Silvius Pulanus*
Secretary of Marcus Antonius Felix
Tiberius
Step-son of Augustus, emperor
(16 November 42 BC - 16 March 37)
2nd Roman Emperor. Ruled from 14 to 37.
Tiberius was born in Rome to Tiberius Claudius Nero and Livia Drusilla. In 39 BC, his mother divorced his biological father and remarried Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus shortly thereafter, while still pregnant with Tiberius Nero's son. Shortly thereafter in 38 BC his brother, Nero Claudius Drusus, was born.
Tiberius was one of Rome's greatest generals, conquering Pannonia, Dalmatia, Raetia, and temporarily Germania; laying the foundations for the northern frontier.
Tiberius married Augustus' daughter Julia the Elder and later was adopted by Augustus, by which act he officially became a Julian, bearing the name Tiberius Julius Caesar.
Augustus died in AD 14, at the age of 75. He was buried with all due ceremony and, as had been arranged beforehand, deified, his will read, and Tiberius confirmed as his sole surviving heir.
In AD 22, he shared his tribunician authority with his son Drusus, and began making yearly excursions to Campania that reportedly became longer and longer every year. In AD 23, Drusus mysteriously died, and Tiberius seems to have made no effort to elevate a replacement. The death of Drusus elevated Sejanus, who became more and more visible as Tiberius began to withdraw from Rome altogether. Finally, with Tiberius's withdrawal in AD 26, Sejanus was left in charge of the entire state mechanism and the city of Rome.
While Sejanus's Praetorians controlled the imperial post, and therefore the information that Tiberius received from Rome and the information Rome received from Tiberius, the presence of Livia seems to have checked his overt power for a time. Her death in AD 29 changed all that.
Sejanus began a series of purge trials of Senators and wealthy equestrians in the city of Rome, removing those capable of opposing his power as well as extending the imperial (and his own) treasury.
The affair with Sejanus and the final years of treason trials permanently damaged Tiberius' image and reputation. After Sejanus's fall, Tiberius' withdrawal from Rome was complete; the empire continued to run under the inertia of the bureaucracy established by Augustus, rather than through the leadership of the Princeps.
Little was done to either secure or indicate how his succession was to take place. Two of the candidates were either Caligula, the sole surviving son of Germanicus, or his own grandson, Tiberius Gemellus. However, only a half-hearted attempt at the end of Tiberius' life was made to make Caligula a quaestor, and thus give him some credibility as a possible successor, while Gemellus himself was still only a teenager and thus completely unsuitable for some years to come.
Tiberius died in Misenum on 16 March AD 37, at the age of 77. In his will, Tiberius had left his powers jointly to Caligula and Tiberius Gemellus.
Titus
Son of Vespasian, general, emperor
(30 December 39 - 13 September 81)
Roman Emperor from 79 to 81.
A member of the Flavian dynasty, Titus succeeded his father Vespasian upon his death, thus becoming the first Roman Emperor to come to the throne after his own father.
Prior to becoming Emperor, Titus gained renown as a military commander, serving under his father in Judaea during the First Jewish-Roman War. The campaign came to a brief halt with the death of emperor Nero in 68, launching Vespasian's bid for the imperial power during the Year of the Four Emperors.
When Vespasian was declared Emperor on 1 July 69, Titus was left in charge of ending the Jewish rebellion. In 70, he successfully laid siege to and destroyed the city and Temple of Jerusalem. For this achievement Titus was awarded a triumph; the Arch of Titus commemorates his victory to this day.
Under the rule of his father, Titus gained notoriety in Rome serving as prefect of the Praetorian Guard, and for carrying on a controversial relationship with the Jewish queen Berenice. Despite concerns over his character, Titus ruled to great acclaim following the death of Vespasian in 79, and was considered a good emperor.
As emperor, he is best known for completing the Colosseum and for his generosity in relieving the suffering caused by two disasters, the Mount Vesuvius eruption of 79 and a fire in Rome in 80. After barely two years in office, Titus died of a fever on 13 September 81. He was deified by the Roman Senate and succeeded by his younger brother Domitian.
Valeria Messalina
Wife of Claudius
Valeria Messalina, (c. 17/20 - 48) was a Roman empress as the third wife of the Emperor Claudius. She was also a paternal cousin of the Emperor Nero, second cousin of the Emperor Caligula, and great-grandniece of the Emperor Augustus. A powerful and influential woman with a reputation for promiscuity, she conspired against her husband and was executed when the plot was discovered.
Ventidius Cumanus
Procurator of Judaea
Ventidius Cumanus (fl. 1st century AD) was the Roman procurator of Iu
daea Province from AD 48 to c. AD 52.
Cumanus' time in office was marked by disputes between his troops and the Jewish population, and his failure to respond to an anti-Jewish murder in Samaritan territory led to violent conflict between Jews and Samaritans. Following an investigation by the governor of Syria, Gaius Ummidius Durmius Quadratus, Cumanus was sent to Rome for a hearing before the Emperor Claudius, who held him responsible for the violence and sentenced him to exile.
Vespasian
General, emperor
(17 November 9 - 23 June 79)
Roman Emperor from AD 69 to AD 79.
Vespasian was the founder of the Flavian dynasty, which ruled the Empire for a quarter century. Vespasian was descended from a family of Equestrians, who rose into the senatorial rank under the Emperors of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Although he attained the standard succession of public offices, holding the consulship in AD 51, Vespasian became more reputed as a successful military commander, participating in the Roman invasion of Britain in 43, and subjugating Judaea during the Jewish rebellion of AD 66.
While Vespasian was preparing to besiege the city of Jerusalem during the latter campaign, emperor Nero committed suicide, plunging the empire into a year of civil war known as the Year of the Four Emperors. After the emperors Galba and Otho perished in quick succession, Vitellius became Emperor in April AD 69. In response, the armies in Egypt and Judaea declared Vespasian emperor on 1 July.
In his bid for imperial power, Vespasian joined forces with Mucianus, the governor of Syria, and Primus, a general in Pannonia. Primus and Mucianus led the Flavian forces against Vitellius, while Vespasian gained control of Egypt. On 20 December, Vitellius was defeated, and the following day Vespasian was declared Emperor by the Roman Senate.
Little information survives about the government during the ten years Vespasian was emperor. His reign is best known for financial reforms following the demise of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, the successful campaign against Judaea, and several ambitious construction projects, such as the Colosseum. Upon his death in 79, he was succeeded by his eldest son Titus, thus becoming the first Roman Emperor to be directly succeeded by his own son.
Vibius Marcus
Governor of Roman Syria
Virgil
Writer and poet
Publius Vergilius Maro (October 15, 70 BC - September 21, 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues (or Bucolics), the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid. A number of minor poems, collected in the Appendix Vergiliana, are sometimes attributed to him.
Virgil is traditionally ranked as one of Rome's greatest poets. His Aeneid has been considered the national epic of ancient Rome from the time of its composition to the present day. Modeled after Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, the Aeneid follows the Trojan refugee Aeneas as he struggles to fulfill his destiny and arrive on the shores of Italy - Roman mythology the founding act of Rome.
Virgil's work has had wide and deep influence on Western literature, most notably the Divine Comedy of Dante, in which Virgil appears as Dante's guide through hell and purgatory.
According to the tradition, Virgil traveled to Greece around 19 BC in order to revise the Aeneid. After meeting Augustus in Athens and deciding to return home, Virgil caught a fever while visiting a town near Megara. After crossing to Italy by ship, weakened with disease, Virgil died in Brundisium harbor on September 21, 19 BC.
The Pagans
Adad*
Syrian, friend of Ahasver, merchant, proselyte
Aeschylus
Greek, playwright
Aeschylus (c. 525/524 BC - c. 456/455 BC) was the first of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays can still be read or performed, the others being Sophocles and Euripides. He is often described as the father of tragedy: our knowledge of the genre begins with
