Handout 4 ON ROMANS - L. Michael White - From Jesus to Christianity FJtC 41f

'Egypt was the 'breadbasket' of Rome; huge cargo ships annually carried tons of grain from Alexandria to Puteoli and Ostia. Along with them came Egyptian cults as well.

Two counter-acting cultural tendencies accompanied the Pax Romana: as people and ideas spread out from Rome, so also newcomers from the conquered territories were drawn to the capital . Soldiers, merchants, administrative personnel, and bureaucrats (such as Pontius Pilate) went out to manage the far provinces. Educated slaves who belonged to the familia Caesaris, or 'household of Caesar' (cf. Phil. 4:22 'greet ... particularly those in Caesar's service'), rather than being domestic servants of the palace at Rome, were the civil servants of their age; they served as bookkeepers, scribes, and secretaries in each provincial capital. After their tour of duty was complete, they could retire as free citizens with a pension; many chose to live in the provinces where they had formerly served.

Also created were Roman colonies. These included older cities such as Corinth in Greece, which had been refounded by Julius Caesar as a Roman colony; land grants were given to Roman veterans and Italian freedmen to move to Corinth. In turn, the city was to a large extent run on the model of Rome itself. The impulse on the part of these Romans in settling the eastern provinces was to carry with them Roman traditions, ideals, and culture. We may properly call this the centrifugal force of Roman rule, as it tended to propel people, ideas, and traditions away from the center - from Rome - toward the periphery. We may also properly call this cultural imperialism.

Traveling in the opposite direction were provincials moving across the empire. The legions often took whole contingents from one province and stationed them in areas far from home. At Newcastle, England, we still find gravestones of Roman soldiers from Palmyra, on the edge of the Arabian desert; following their discharge from the army, some stayed behind to marry and raise families. Britain was still a Roman province. Yet the biggest draw of all was Rome itself, and the influx of immigrants from all parts of the empire caused more than one old Roman to bemoan the fact that 'All roads lead to Rome'. Such is the point of a famous barb from the Roman historian Tacitus in reference to Christians. He describes Christianity as a Judean superstition that has even reached Rome, 'where all things hideous and shameful from all parts of the world find their center and become popular'. We may properly call this the centripetal force of Roman rule, as 'diasporas' from all over the empire were drawn there, often crowding together in their own neighborhood enclaves. With them they brought their own culture, traditions, and religion, but at the same time they had to find ways to fit in.'