What were Caesar's last words?
- "Et tu, Brute?" ("Even you, Brutus?")
The Roman Empire
- The republic changed to an empire
Octavian
- AKA Caesar Augustus
- Augustus- honorific; the honored one
- He was nearly a God in their eyes
- He took over at the age of 18
- Augustus was "the first emperor getting it done"
- Begins the Pax Romana - a period of peace and prosperity
- Built roads, aqueducts (brought water into cities)
- Set up civil service to take care of roads, the grain supply, even a postal service
- Augustus dies at age 76 in A.D. 14, and passes his power to Tiberius
Jesus
- Jesus was a Roman citizen and a practicing Jew
- At 30, he began his ministry (A.D. 31-33), preaching to the poor (and there were lots of them) in the empire, and reaching out to outsiders
- Statements like "my kingdom is not of this world" made the Romans (and the Jews) nervous, and they began to plan his execution
- The governor of the Roman province of Judaea, Pontius Pilate (prompted by Jewish high priests), sentences Jesus to death by crucifixion
- Paul is instrumental in telling the world about Jesus' life, death, resurrection, and message
- He travels far and wide: Cyprus, Anatolia, Athens, Corinth, Macedonia, Rome, Jerusalem, and maybe even Spain and Britain
- He writes letters to many of those people he spoke to - these epistles are a part of the NT
- If not for the efforts of Paul, it is likely that Jesus remains an obscure preacher, instead of the central figure of the world's largest religion
The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History
- Muhammad
- Sir Isaac Newton
- Jesus
- Buddha
- Confucius
- St. Paul of Tarsus
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