Augustus was the
first emperor
Caligula- adopted son of Tiberius in line for
the throne
- Does a lot of things Caesar would have done
- He started off well" granting military bonuses
- He begins a fight with the Senate
- He claimed to be a god, had statues of himself displayed all over the place
- Even in the Jewish Temple, where they only believed in ONE god
- Often sleep with other men's wivesa
- Spent money on these crazy drunken orgies
- Assassinated by his own aides, AD 41 (aged 28)
Next in line: Claudius
- He had either cerebral palsy or polio (speech impediment, limp, trouble hearing)
- His family made fun of him
- He turned out to be a pretty brilliant leader
- Expanded the empire, built roads, canals, and aqueducts, he renovated the Circus Maximus
- His wife Messalina: cheated on him even plotting to seize power for her lover Silius
- Claudius found out about it and had them both killed
Christianity and
Judaism: monotheistic….went against the roman belief in many gods (including
the emperor)
- You can't be a good roman and a Jew/Christian
- Eventually the Zealots tried to rebel (bad idea)
- The Roman troops put them down and burned their temple (except for one wall which is still there)
- The Western Wall- holiest wall of the Jewish shrines
- Half a million Jews died in the rebellion (poor Jews, they have been through a lot)
Christians were fair
game in Rome
- It was okay to torture them and persecute them
- You wouldn’t get in trouble for messing with them
- Despite or maybe because of this oppression, Christianity spread
- 10 percent of the people in the Roman empire were Christians
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