Tag Roman empire

American Presidents and Roman Politicians

Luca Fezzi— In the creative chaos of the reflections on the first election campaign won by Barack Hussein Obama in 2008, a daring parallel emerged between the newly elected president and the Roman orator and politician Marcus Tullius Cicero, for their status as well-learned politicians and excellent speakers. The article

Continue reading…

Josephus and Jesus: The Early Christian Movement

Paula Fredriksen— Priest, Pharisee, prophet, military leader, war captive, historian: Josephus. Josephus aids us, in crucial ways, in our quest for the assembly of Jesus’ earliest followers in Jerusalem. Indeed, for almost three decades, in this holy city, he and they would have been neighbors. Yosef ben Mattityahu was born

Continue reading…

Adrian Goldsworthy Documents the Lives of the Greatest Romans: Caesar, Antony, and now Augustus

Adrian Goldsworthy, an award-winning biographer and historian, has brought ancient Rome to life through a trilogy of biographies of the leaders of the greatest empire of all time. In Caesar: Life of a Colossus and Antony and Cleopatra, Goldsworthy cut through the traditional stories told of these well-known figures, exposing the complexity

Continue reading…

In the First Thousand Years of Christianity…

Follow @yaleRELIbooks As the Romans conquered vast territories in the first century BCE, they brought disparate parts of the world under one political rule. Their strategy for maintaining these sprawling territories left room for relative cultural, linguistic and religious diversity, so long as it did not threaten Roman authority. Ideas

Continue reading…

Beneath Biblical Lands

There was a time when historians would have to accept some details of the past as great unknowns. Without the ability to go back in time, recording and relating history will always pose difficulties. But each year, more and more of these oppositions are being removed. Today, modern archaeological research

Continue reading…