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Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary

ROME, City of

City in Italy founded, according to tradition, in 753 BC on seven hills about 15 miles (24.1 kilometers) from the mouth of the Tiber River. It was of no biblical interest until NT times. There are nine explicit references to the city in the NT (Acts 2:10; 18:2; 19:21; 23:11; 28:14, 16; Rom 1:7, 15; 2 Tm 1:17), but Paul’s sojourn there and his letter to the Roman Christians, written probably from Corinth around AD 57 and 58, make the imperial city of considerable interest to Bible readers.

History

In the second millennium BC, Indo-European migrants moved into Europe and settled in the Italian peninsula. One group settled around the mouth of the Tiber River. A vigorous and more cultured group, the Etruscans from Asia Minor, occupied central Italy. At the time of Rome’s emergence in the eighth century BC, the population of the Italian peninsula was mixed. The Latin-speaking enclave, which settled toward the mouth of the Tiber, were agriculturalists. The scattered groups formed leagues and communities to defend themselves against raiders. They built stockades on the hills to protect families and flocks while fighting off the raiders. From such beginnings Rome emerged as a dominant center with its focal point in the area of the seven hills (the Palatine, the Capitoline, the Aventine, the Caelian, the Esquiline, the Viminal, and the Quirinal). Traditionally these hills were considered to be seven in number; in fact, there are more than seven, although some are simply flat-topped spurs. The Tiber River winds in a large S-curve between the hills. At one point it divided to form an island where it was shallow enough to ford. The town that grew up there was linked by roads, north to the Etruscans, south to the Greek trading cities, west to the coast, and inland to the tribal areas on the highlands. Knowledge of early Rome is based largely on archaeological evidence from the remains of the simple forts and numerous burial sites in the area.

Rome developed politically in a remarkable fashion over the next 1,000 years. The loose association of the original chieftains, who comprised the earliest “senate,” gave place to domination by Etruscan kings who seem to have trained the people in discipline and obedience. They constructed numerous works, draining the forum area and making it a social, commercial, industrial, and political center. They built a temple for Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva on the Capitoline Hill as a common shrine for all the people. When the kings became autocratic, the Latin population rebelled and expelled the kings.

The republic was established in 510 BC. This establishment marked the beginning of Rome’s remarkable expansion to the dimensions of a world empire. The population, which was now spread out over the hills and valleys, despite their tribal differences, united and solved political problems without bloodshed. Strictly speaking, the term “republican” should not be understood in any modern sense as indicating a kind of democracy. Rather, the ancient families (patricians) dominated the senate and constituted an oligarchy. This arrangement was useful for Rome at that time. The small city-state soon broke out of its confined area, overcame the Etruscans, and dominated the Greek cities to the south. The Romans then looked farther afield. In 273 BC they made a treaty with the Ptolemies of Egypt. Before long, they expanded into North Africa, overcame the Carthaginians, pressed on into Spain, and developed ambitions to occupy the Middle East as well. Rome’s many conquests brought enormous wealth.

With geographical expansion came social changes in Italy. During the second century BC, rich landowners bought out the small independent farmers, who subsequently drifted into Rome, landless and unemployed. Huge, overcrowded tenement houses appeared, which constituted creeping slums. Alongside this squalor there was evidence of vast wealth from Rome’s conquests in distant lands. In the capital, many fine buildings appeared. Pompey, who subdued and organized the East, did much to adorn the great capital.

The next stage in Rome’s political development came when the senate, the governing body of the republic, proved unable to control its more radical and violent members. As their political ambitions increased, aspiring leaders sought to gain popular support by granting privileges to the people without the concurrence of the senate. Civil strife broke out and plagued the last century of the republic. Military victories beyond Rome gave power to the generals. In the civil wars that followed, constitutional questions were decided by the power of the sword. Marius, Sulla, Pompey, Crassus, Julius Caesar, Antony, and Octavian were the real political forces in the land.

By 27 BC, Octavian emerged supreme and was given the title Augustus. Theoretically, a dual government existed between the senate and Augustus (the emperor), but a weak senate allowed the emperor to become the virtual ruler. As a result, Roman peace (pax Romana) reigned at home and abroad until well into the second century AD. The emperors of the first century AD cover the period of the life of Jesus and of the emerging church, and several are mentioned in the NT: Augustus (Lk 2:1), Tiberius (Lk 3:1), Claudius (Acts 11:28; 18:2), and Nero, who is referred to without being explicitly named (Acts 25:10-12; 27:24; 2 Tm 4:16-17).

The city of Rome was the capital of the empire and the home of the emperor, senators, administrators, military personnel, and priests. Augustus, the first of the emperors whose leadership and diplomatic endeavors gave peace to Rome after two civil wars and a century of strife, gave attention to the restoration and adornment of the city. He boasted that he found Rome built of brick and left it built of marble. His efforts at restoring Rome’s ancient religions led to the building of many temples. On the Palatine hill, Augustus united several houses already there into a palace for his own residence. A new and sumptuous temple of Apollo, surrounded by colonnades in which the emperor housed a large library, was erected near the palace. The palace itself overlooked an imposing group of new marble buildings in the valley below: a basilica business hall, a senate house, a temple of “the divine Julius,” a marble speaker’s platform, two impressive new forums, the forum of Caesar, and the forum of Augustus. Later emperors added to this splendor. Beyond the central forum area, the palaces of Tiberius and Caligula, various baths, arches, and theaters, the Circus Maximus, and the Circus Nero were built. The whole was enclosed by a wall built outside the old rampart of Servius. Several aqueducts brought water into the city, and significant roads from north, south, east, and west converged on the central city area.

Rome’s Military Presence in Palestine

With the military intervention of Pompey in the internal affairs of Judea in 63 BC, Rome established its presence in Palestine. The census ordered by Augustus Caesar, affecting the eastern provinces as well as the rest of the Roman world (Lk 2:1-2), was a vivid reminder. Roman military presence is amply reflected on the pages of the Gospels and Acts (e.g., Mk 15:16; Lk 3:14; 7:1-8; Acts 5:37).

In the NT period, service in the legions was open to all Roman citizens. A professional volunteer army had replaced a conscripted militia. The permanent standing army was made up of legions recruited from the ranks of citizens. The legions were commanded by experienced officers of the rank of consul. Auxiliary forces were raised outside Italy, the inducement for enlistment being Roman citizenship for a soldier and his descendants after 25 years of service.

In the provinces supreme military command lay with the provincial governor or prefect. In Judea at the time of Jesus’ public ministry, Pontius Pilate was designated “prefect of Judea” in a Latin inscription found in Caesarea in 1961. At the official center for administration of Judea, Caesarea Maritima, one or more legions at the disposal of the governor would be garrisoned. On special occasions, particularly at the great Jewish festivals, when riots and disorders could be anticipated, the provincial governor would take up residence in Jerusalem some 60 miles (96.5 kilometers) to the south, accompanied by a substantial contingent of troops (cf. Lk 13:1).

Augustus established a standing army large enough to defend and pacify the empire. In 15 BC there were 28 legions, each composed of some 5,000 foot soldiers plus a mounted bodyguard of 128 men. After three legions were destroyed in uprisings by fierce Germanic tribes in AD 9, the number remained at 25 for some time. That suggests a standing army of about 125,000 legionaries in the first century.

Augustus was also responsible for establishing a permanent auxiliary army, almost the same size as the legionary army. The auxiliary forces, recruited from provincials who had not yet received Roman citizenship, included both cavalry and infantry. The cavalry was organized in squadrons, the infantry in cohorts of 1,000 under command of a military tribune (Acts 21:31-33). When the apostle Paul was in Jerusalem, the tribune was Claudius Lysias, a man of Greek birth whose purchased Roman citizenship made possible his elevation to commander of an auxiliary cohort (22:28; 23:26). To send Paul from Jerusalem to Caesarea, Claudius could delegate a military escort of 200 soldiers commanded by two centurions, plus 70 mounted guards (23:23), without dangerously weakening the strength of the fortress garrison.

A cohort was made up of either ten or five “centuries,” units consisting of 100 men under the command of a centurion whose duties resembled those of a modern army captain. Cornelius (Acts 10:1) was a Roman centurion assigned to one of the auxiliary cohorts in Judea. There is inscriptional evidence for the presence of his unit, “the Second Italian Cohort of Roman Citizens,” in Syria about AD 69. Paul was sent to Rome in the custody of another centurion, Julius, who belonged to the Augustan or imperial cohort (27:1). The term Augustan was a title of honor sometimes bestowed on auxiliary troops. Julius was evidently a legionary centurion assigned to the corps of officer-couriers who maintained a communication service between the emperor and his provincial armies. He had a detachment of soldiers under his command on the voyage to Rome (v 3) and on arrival handed his prisoners over to the commander of the courier corps (28:16). Probably all of the Roman centurions mentioned in the Gospels or Acts (Mt 8:5; Mk 15:39; Lk 7:2) were officers assigned to an auxiliary cohort.

Christians in Rome

It was to this magnificent city that Paul came under escort in March AD 59. He found that the Christian church had already been established there. Indeed, he had already communicated with the Christians in his letter to the Romans early in 57. There was a considerable Jewish colony in Rome in the first century AD, descended from the large number of Jewish slaves brought to the city by Pompey after the capture of Jerusalem in 63 BC. The emperor Claudius expelled Jews from Rome in AD 49, possibly when Jesus was proclaimed as Messiah in the synagogue. Who the preachers were is not known, but they were probably Christian travelers and traders. Paul’s Letter to the Romans was his exposition to the Gentile churches that had come into existence independently of him. His first known contact with the people of Rome was when he met Aquila and Priscilla at Corinth (Acts 18:2). This couple was expelled from Rome in the time of Claudius. Later, Paul hoped to visit Rome (Acts 19:21) on his way to Spain (Rom 15:24). In his salutation he mentioned a considerable circle of Christians in Rome (ch 16). The references to households in several places (vv 5, 10, 11, 14, 15) suggest that these were house churches of the Roman Christian church. During his captivity, Paul was a prisoner of Roman authorities, but he was able to meet the local leaders of the Jews, explain his experiences to them, and expound the gospel to them in person (Acts 28:16-31).

In the book of Revelation, Rome is given a sinister significance. By the end of the first century AD, Rome had already drunk the “blood of the martyrs of Jesus” (Rv 17:6), a reference to early martyrs.