2.   The Romans

The unquestioning reader of Matthew's gospel is left with the benign impression that the Romans were for the most part inconspicuous, prudent and polite. In his only reported encounter with a centurion, Jesus is so impressed with the man's faith that he turns and says to those following him, "I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone with such great faith in all Israel" (Matthew 8:10).

But the lack of historical endorsement is tremendous.

Rome styled Judaism a "superstition" and Roman commanders rifled the Temple treasury at will. The first commander to do so was Crassus of the First Triumvirate,

Now, on his expedition against the Parthians, Crassus came into Judea and carried off the money that Pompey had forsworn and left intact in the Temple's treasury, a sum of two thousand talents. Crassus also took a beam of solid beaten gold which Eleazar the priest and guardian of the sacred treasures offered to him as ransom for the veils of admirable beauty and very costly workmanship that hung down from it, but not until the Roman had sworn to take nothing more. Now this beam of gold was concealed inside a hollow wooden one and the deception was known to Eleazar alone. Yet Crassus seized the beam, broke his oath and purloined all the gold of the Temple.

(Antiquities of the Jews. Book XIV, Chapter 7, par. 1. Edited)

Roman soldiers duplicated their commanders' contempt on occasion,

A big riot caused the death of many Jews during the administration of Cumanus [the procurator sent by Caesar Claudius in AD 45]. A great crowd had gathered in Jerusalem for the Feast of Passover. Cumanus, like his predecessors, posted a regiment in the Temple's cloisters to discourage uprisings. But on the fourth day of the Feast a certain soldier let down his breeches and exposed his private parts to the crowd. The people were furious and shouted that God himself had been affronted. Nay, some said Cumanus had set the soldier up. The procurator urged restraint but the protest did not abate, so he ordered the whole army to wear their armor and go to Tower Antonia which overlooked the Temple. When the people saw the soldiers they panicked and fled, but the exits were so narrow that they trampled each other to death in the stampede. The number of casualties was not less than twenty thousand. Such affliction did the impudent obscenity of a single soldier trigger.

(Antiquities of the Jews. Book XX, Chapter 5, par. 3. Edited)

A Syrian procurator named Sabinus provoked Judea to rebellion in 4 BC

Archelaus had sailed away to Caesar seeking his confirmation as king of Judea. Sabinus rushed to Jerusalem at the head of a legion, ransacked the Temple's treasury, seized citadels and the palace in a frantic search for Herod's cash. A multitude of tens of thousands who had come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost clashed with the Syrian legion and hemmed it in. Sabinus then sent a courier to Varus the prefect of Syria asking for his help,

As soon as Varus was informed of the trouble in Judea he took the two other legions stationed in Syria and several auxiliary forces to assist the besieged. He sent part of his army into Galilee; this army took Sepphoris, enslaved its inhabitants and burnt the city. Varus himself marched to Samaria and camped at a certain village named Arus. The Arabian auxiliaries burnt it, out of their hatred to Herod. Next he marched to another village named Sampho, which the Arabians plundered and burnt. All places along the prefect's route were full of fire and slaughter. He also ordered Emmaus burnt. From there he marched to Jerusalem. The Jebusites alleged that the mobs who had come to the Feast had caused the war and that they too had been besieged like the Roman legion. Sabinus avoided Varus and slipped out of the city privately. Varus then sent part of his army to apprehend the authors of the revolt: some he dismissed and the most guilty he punished. Now the number of those crucified on this account was two thousand.

(Antiquities of the Jews. Book XVII, Chapter 10, pars. 9-10. Edited)

Pontius Pilate started his term as procurator offending the citizens of Jerusalem deliberately. He billeted the army within the city walls and had them bear their ensigns adorned with Caesar's effigy. A throng protested the affront for many days and Pilate almost staged a massacre right then and there but he restrained himself and at length was persuaded to remove the offending ensigns from the city.

Next he confiscated the sanctuary money to build an aqueduct. Many thousands of people protested his diversion of the water and this time the procurator reacted vigorously,

Pontius Pilate disguised a great number of his soldiers as protesters, daggers concealed beneath their garments, and sent them to a place where they could surround the multitude. So he bid the Jews depart, but they refused and cast reproaches upon him. He then gave a contrived signal to the disguised soldiers and these laid upon the Jews much heavier blows than Pilate had indicated and they equally punished the orderly and the disorderly, nor did they spare anybody in the least, and since the people were unarmed and assaulted by trained men, a great number was slain while others ran away wounded. And thus an end was put to this sedition.

(Antiquities of the Jews. Book XVIII, Chapter 3, par. 2. Edited)

Gessius Florus was the last procurator.

Caesar Nero sent Gessius Florus to succeed Albinus. This Florus was so wicked and so violent in the use of his authority that Albinus seemed a benefactor by comparison, for Albinus concealed his wickedness but Florus made pompous ostentation of it, never omitting any violence or unjust punishment. He was unmoved by pity and never satisfied with however much wealth he procured. He partnered with a great many robbers who now acted fearlessly, having him for guarantor of their security. Hence there were no bounds to the nation's miseries and those unhappy Jews who could not bear the robberies emigrated to other countries. This Florus caused us to take up arms against the Romans since we thought it better to be destroyed at once than little by little. Now this war began in the second year of Florus' term and in the twelfth of Nero's.

(Antiquities of the Jews. Book XX, Chapter 11, par. 1. Edited)

There was no guarantee of security for Jews abroad either.

Caesar Tiberius appointed Flaccus Avillius procurator of Alexandria and its environs in AD 32. Upon the death of Tiberius in AD 37, the principal men of Alexandria, "full of envy and ill-will and being at the same time filled with an ancient and innate enmity towards the Jews," persuaded the procurator to forsake and denounce the Jews. By so doing, they argued, Flaccus would gratify his political enemy, Caesar Caligula, who "cherished an indescribable hatred against the Jews" and held a grudge against the procurator himself. When the Egyptians sensed that Flaccus was leaning to their side they ventured to introduce images of Caesar in the synagogues. A few days later Flaccus publicly branded all Jews "foreigners" and "aliens" and decreed their status to be prisoners of war thenceforth,

So when the people had received this license, what did they do? The city has five districts named after the first five letters of the written alphabet. Two districts are called "the quarters of the Jews" because the majority of Jews lives there although some dwell scattered elsewhere. What then did they do? They drove the Jews entirely out of four quarters and crammed everyone into a very small space. The Jews lost all their property; the people plundered their houses and divided the spoils as in wartime; they looted their workshops and hauled the goods off to the marketplace.

(Philo of Alexandria. Flaccus. VIII, 55-56. Edited)

Philo describes the graphic horror borne by the Jews of Alexandria subsequently.

Some of our people, everyone oppressed by terrible want, upon seeing their wives and children perish of unnatural famine—all other places basked in prosperity and abundance for the Nile River had irrigated the cornfields liberally—went to the houses of friends and relatives begging food; others went to buy it in the marketplace; they were immediately seized, slain, dragged and trampled by the whole city. Thus the enemies of the Jews became wild beasts and slew them by the thousands with all manner of torture. They stoned or beat a captured Jew with sticks and prolonged his suffering deliberately. They burned entire families in the city centre, husbands, wives and children together. They dragged men by one foot while others leapt on the victim, the perpetrators mimicking the victims as actors do in the theatrical farces. Relatives and friends who were sympathetic to the Jews were jailed, scourged, tortured and eventually crucified.

(Ibid., 62-72. Edited)

Hence he who said, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel," (Matthew 15:24) would hardly defer to the petition of a Roman. Matthew's story claws the surreal asymptote when the Roman centurion addresses Jesus as "Lord" (Matthew 8:6, 8:8).

The story of the centurion is a canard. These verses reveal the motive,

When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, "I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

(Matthew 8:10-12)

It is well known that the Early Church disowned its Jewish roots speedily and branded "Judaizer" anyone who refused to follow suit. The put-down became persecution when the Church gained political clout. Matthew 8:10-12 conveniently foreshadow and bless the turnabout.

Aside for the thoughtful reader