Though fifteen-year-old Nepos lost his parents at an early age, he is brave and adventurous, with a thirst for knowledge. Living in the Roman Empire, he has been raised by his grandfather Philo Curtius, the founder and owner of a Roman newsletter. At Neposs request, Curtius calls in some favors, and the boy is allowed to accompany General Tarquitius and his entourage on a trip to Judea. Nepos believes this is his chance to prove to everyone he is ready to become both a man and a reporter. The itinerary calls for the entourage to visit cities close to the sea, such as Syracuse in Sicilia, Corinth and Athens in Achaia, Thessalonica in Macedonia, Philippi in Thrace, Ephesus in Asia Minor, Myra in Lycia, Tarsus in Cilicia, Antioch in Syria, and finally Jerusalem in Judea. Nepos is exposed to the great culture of all these places, but when the general is robbed, Nepos is sent to report on a wedding in Cana. There, he witnesses a man called Jesus turning water into wine. Intrigued, Nepos sets out to discover who Jesus really is. Nepos is eager to discover more about the Son of God.

Though fifteen-year-old Nepos lost his parents at an early age, he is brave and adventurous, with a thirst for knowledge. Living in the Roman Empire, he has been raised by his grandfather Philo Curtius, the founder and owner of a Roman newsletter. At Nepos's request, Curtius calls in some favors, and the boy is allowed to accompany General Tarquitius and his entourage on a trip to Judea. Nepos believes this is his chance to prove to everyone he is ready to become both a man and a reporter. The itinerary calls for the entourage to visit cities close to the sea, such as Syracuse in Sicilia, Corinth and Athens in Achaia, Thessalonica in Macedonia, Philippi in Thrace, Ephesus in Asia Minor, Myra in Lycia, Tarsus in Cilicia, Antioch in Syria, and finally Jerusalem in Judea. Nepos is exposed to the great culture of all these places, but when the general is robbed, Nepos is sent to report on a wedding in Cana. There, he witnesses a man called Jesus turning water into wine. Intrigued, Nepos sets out to discover who Jesus really is. Nepos is eager to discover more about the "Son of God."

Rome and Judea in Transition is the first English-language book to study exclusively the first century and a half of Roman-Judean political relations (164-37 B.C.). It presents a comprehensive reassessment of the Late Republic's involvement in the Levant, the motives of Hasmonean diplomacy, and the development of the Jewish high priesthood. Therefore, it is of interest to classicists, ancient historians, biblical scholars, and students of Judaica alike. Previous studies have often mischaracterized this period as a consistent unfolding of Rome's hegemonic will at Jewish expense. By contrast, this book argues that the Republic harbored no imperial designs on Judea prior to Pompey's opportunistic intervention in 63 B.C., and that Rome's subsequent intermittent meddling in the region's governance did not significantly alter the dynamics of the Hasmonean state. Only with the Parthian invasion of Syria in 40 B.C. - and because of it - did the Republic unilaterally reshape Judean politics by its elevation of Herod the Great as King of the Jews. Judea's alliance with Rome began in the context of Judas Maccabeus' revolt against Seleucid rule. Scholars have therefore understandably assumed that the primary hope of Judas' successors was that Roman recognition would secure and extend Judean sovereignty. This book argues that the main motive for Hasmonean diplomacy was domestic: to advertise the legitimacy of the Maccabees against their Jewish rivals. For this reason, the documentary record of relations with the Republic is of great value for studying the ideology and institutional growth of high priestly power during this period.

The quality of life for ordinary Roman citizens at the height of the Roman Empire probably was better than that of any other large group of people living before the Industrial Revolution. The Roman Market Economy uses the tools of modern economics to show how trade, markets, and the Pax Romana were critical to ancient Rome's prosperity.Peter Temin, one of the world's foremost economic historians, argues that markets dominated the Roman economy. He traces how the Pax Romana encouraged trade around the Mediterranean, and how Roman law promoted commerce and banking. Temin shows that a reasonably vibrant market for wheat extended throughout the empire, and suggests that the Antonine Plague may have been responsible for turning the stable prices of the early empire into the persistent inflation of the late. He vividly describes how various markets operated in Roman times, from commodities and slaves to the buying and selling of land. Applying modern methods for evaluating economic growth to data culled from historical sources, Temin argues that Roman Italy in the second century was as prosperous as the Dutch Republic in its golden age of the seventeenth century.The Roman Market Economy reveals how economics can help us understand how the Roman Empire could have ruled seventy million people and endured for centuries.

Uses genre theory to explore the composition and purpose of Acts, concluding that it is a work of collected biography.