Judea (Roman province)

Judea was a small third-class province in the Roman Empire. It occupied the same area as modern Israel and Palestine. For centuries Judea had been under the rule of the Seleucid Empire. As that empire broke down, Rome gradually took control of the eastern parts of the Mediterranean. By 64 BC, after nearly two centuries of independent rule, those struggling for the Judean crown asked Emperor Pompey the Great to decide. Pompey stepped in and made Judea a client state. It briefly became a procuratorship between 41 and 44 AD under King Herod Agrippa. After his death it was returned to a province again. It was the scene of several wars called the Jewish–Roman wars. In 70 AD it was the scene of the Great Jewish Revolt resulting in the institution of the Fiscus Judaicus. After Bar Kokhba's revolt (132–135), the Roman Emperor Hadrian changed the name of the province to Syria Palaestina. The name Jerusalem was changed to Aelia Capitolina.