Known for: Caesar Augustus (63 BC – 14 AD) was the first Roman emperor and one of the most successful. He reigned for 45 years and was ruling at the time of Jesus Christ’s birth.
Pontius Pilate served as the prefect of Judaea from 26 to 36 A.D. He convicted Jesus of treason and declared that Jesus thought himself King of the Jews, and had Jesus crucified. Pilate died 39 A.D. The cause of his death remains a mystery.
Chances are he had no idea. Jesus was probably born between 6 BC and 4 BC, while Augustus died in AD 14. As someone else has written, Augustus died in 14 AD, when Jesus would have been around 19 or 20 years old — so it’s highly unlikely that Augustus would have known of Him.
He became more reclusive, remaining on Capri where in 37 CE he died at the age of 77 (supposedly at the hands of the prefect of the Praetorian Guard, Nevius Sutorius Macor, with the help of Tiberius’ eventual successor Caligula ).
The 5 Worst Roman Emperors Caligula : 37 – 41 AD. A bust of Caligula . Nero : 54 – 68 AD. As with all emperors, the horror stories may be the work of his enemies, but Nero has many to his name. Commodus : 180 – 192 AD. Caracalla : 198 – 217 AD. Maximinus Thrax: 235 to 238 AD.
Augustus, the first emperor , was also the longest ruling emperor — it’s impressive that once he took control after the civil war, he was able to rule and control a growing empire peacefully for over 40 years.
Pontius Pilate , Latin in full Marcus Pontius Pilatus , (died after 36 ce), Roman prefect (governor) of Judaea (26–36 ce) under the emperor Tiberius who presided at the trial of Jesus and gave the order for his crucifixion.
In Christianity , Jesus is the Son of God and in many mainstream Christian denominations he is God the Son, the second Person in the Trinity. He is believed to be the Jewish messiah who is prophesied in the Hebrew Bible, which is called the Old Testament in Christianity .
Magi (/ˈmeɪdʒaɪ/; singular magus /ˈmeɪɡəs/; from Latin magus) were priests in Zoroastrianism and the earlier religions of the western Iranians. The earliest known use of the word magi is in the trilingual inscription written by Darius the Great , known as the Behistun Inscription.
Over time, the Christian church and faith grew more organized. In 313 AD, the Emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan , which accepted Christianity: 10 years later, it had become the official religion of the Roman Empire.
To the Romans , Jesus was a troublemaker who had got his just desserts. To the Christians, however, he was a martyr and it was soon clear that the execution had made Judaea even more unstable. Pontius Pilate – the Roman governor of Judaea and the man who ordered the crucifixion – was ordered home in disgrace.
They answered, ” Caesar’s ,” and he responded: “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s ; and unto God the things that are God’s”. The questioners were impressed. Matthew 22:22 states that they “marvelled” (ἐθαύμασαν); unable to trap him any further, and being satisfied with the answer, they went away.
To many Romans, the reign of Augustus marked the point at which Rome had rediscovered its true calling. They believed that, under his rule and with his dynasty , they had the leadership to get there. At his death, Augustus , the ‘son of a god’, was himself declared a god.
Ancient Rome was a dangerous place to be an emperor. During its more than 500-year run, about 20 percent of Rome’s 82 emperors were assassinated while in power.
The Romans (Latin: Rōmānī, Classical Greek: Rhōmaîoi ) were a cultural group, variously referred to as an ethnicity or a nationality, that in classical antiquity, from the 2nd century BC to the 5th century AD, came to rule large parts of Europe, the Near East and North Africa through conquests made during the Roman