Rome and the middle east

The relationship between the roman empire and the middle east is intriguing because of two reasons; first, it were the Jews that were creating problems for the dominant political power of its day in the middle east, and secondly that the way Rome dealt with these particular problems was fairly secular. The region of Judea can be taken as an example. This was an area with strategic importance, because grain from Egypt shipped through here and into the roman empire; and grain was like oil for the roman empire. But Judea was highly multi ethnic, and it was a pain trying to solve these multi ethic disputes. The way Augustus approached this problem was by having governors who would enforce Jewish laws but also try to solve local disputes as locally as possible. Rome made lots of adjustments in trying to cope with what satisfied and did not satisfy ethnic groups of Judea. Jerusalem for example, was not made into a capital because it was sacred for Jewish people. The roman coins distributed in Judea did not had the face of the king because it would have violated the ten commandments for Jews. The taxes paid by Jews went to the Jerusalem temple rather than to the treasury of Rome. Still, there were problems. Passover was one of the holy days when even the most supportive Jew of Roman empire dreamt of having Israeli nation. There was also a group called Zealots, who committed terrorist acts in order to entice the entire Jewish community revolt against the Romans. The story about Jesus and how he was dealt by the Roman empire is also interesting. Sanhedrin, a group that was made up of 71 leading Jewish leaders, demanded death of Jesus because he had committed a sin, but Pontius Pilate told them that he had not committed any sort of crime under Jewish law. Ultimately he caved in partially because it was a local matter and partially because Tiberius, the successor to Augustus, was paranoid and wanted to suppress any signs of revolt in his kingdom. If pilate had gone against the Sanhedrin, then a revolt might have erupted.

So the relationship between Rome and middle east was certainly shaky. And this relationship became worse as newer dictators that emerged on the scene were not as witty and sharp as their predecessors and tried to rule middle east by dominating them rather than trying to compromise with them. This was also the time that christianity was coming into existence and the timing was not that good.