Judaea (Roman province)

Judaea was a Roman province from 6 to 132 CE, which at its height encompassed the regions of Judea, Idumea, Samaria, and Galilee, as well as parts of the coastal plain of the southern Levant. At its height, it encompassed much of the core territories of the former Kingdom of Judaea, which had been ruled by the Hasmonean and Herodian dynasties in previous decades. The name ''Judaea'' (like the similar ''Judea'') derives from the Iron Age Kingdom of Judah, which was centered in the region of Judea.

Since the Roman Republic's conquest of Judaea in 63 BCE, which abolished the independent Hasmonean monarchy, Rome maintained a system of semi-autonomous vassalage in the region. After Hasmonean ruler Antigonus II Mattathias briefly regained the throne, he was overthrown by Herod, who was appointed King of the Jews by the Roman Senate and ruled Judaea until his death in 4 BCE. The province's formal incorporation into the Roman Empire was enacted by Augustus in 6 CE, following an appeal by the populace against the misrule of Herod's son, Herod Archelaus (r. 4 BCE–6 CE). The administrative capital was relocated from Jerusalem to the coastal city of Caesarea Maritima.

Over the six decades following the province's establishment, relations between the majority Jewish population and Roman authorities were marked by frequent crises. With the onset of direct rule, the official census instituted by Publius Sulpicius Quirinius, the governor of Roman Syria, caused tensions and led to an uprising by Jewish rebel Judas of Galilee (6 CE). Other notable events in the region include the crucifixion of Jesus (which led to the emergence of Christianity) and in 37 CE, Emperor Caligula ordered the erection of a statue of himself in the Second Temple. A brief respite came under Agrippa I (r. 41–44 CE), a popular ruler who temporarily restored Jewish self-governance under Roman auspices. However, after his death, Judaea—now encompassing Galilee and Perea—reverted to direct Roman rule, and unrest gradually escalated. In the following years, prophetic figures sought to gain followers, Sicarii assassins targeted officials, and corrupt and brutal governors—most notably Gessius Florus (r. 64–66 CE)—further inflamed tensions.

In 66 CE, unrest in Caesarea, followed by clashes in Jerusalem, ignited the First Jewish–Roman War. The Romans, under Vespasian and later his son Titus, systematically crushed the rebellion, culminating in the razing of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE. The Jewish population recovered within a generation and, in 132 CE, launched the Bar Kokhba revolt in response to Hadrian's plans to construct Aelia Capitolina, a pagan colony, on the ruins of Jerusalem. The rebels briefly established an independent Jewish state, but the Roman suppression of the revolt resulted in the widespread destruction and near-depopulation of the region of Judea. In the revolt's aftermath, the province was renamed Syria Palaestina. Provided by Wikipedia