Quirinius

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

Quirinius

Publius Sulpicius Quirinius (Greek

Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
???????? - Kyrenios or Cyrenius, c. 51 BC - AD 21

Year 21 was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar....
) was a Roman

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
aristocrat. His governorship of Syria

Syria (Roman province)

Syria was a Roman province, annexed in 64 BC by Pompey, as a consequence of his military presence after pursuing victory in the Third Mithridatic War....
is one of the chronological anchors

Chronology of Jesus

The Chronology of Jesus depicts the attempt to establish a historical chronology for the events of the life of Jesus depicted in the four canonical gospels ....
for the birth of Jesus

Jesus

Jesus of Nazareth , also known as Jesus Christ, is the central figure of Christianity and is revered by most Christian churches as the Son of God and the Incarnation ....
.
in the neighborhood of Lanuvium

Lanuvium

Lanuvium is an ancient city of Latium, some 32 km southeast of Rome, a little southwest of the Via Appia.Lanuvium was situated on an isolated hill projecting south from the main mass of the Alban Hills, and commanding an extensive view over the low country between it and the sea....
, a Latin town near Rome, of an undistinguished family, Quirinius followed the normal pathway of service for an ambitious young man of his social class. According to the Roman historian Florus

Florus

Florus, Roman Empire historian, lived in the time of Trajan and Hadrian.He compiled, chiefly from Livy, a brief sketch of the history of Rome from the foundation of the city to the closing of the temple of Janus by Augustus Caesar ....
, Quirinius defeated the Marmaridae, a tribe of desert raiders from Cyrenaica, possibly while governor of Crete

Crete

Crete is the largest of the Greek islands and the List of islands in the Mediterranean largest island in the Mediterranean Sea at 8,336 km? ....
and Cyrene

Cyrene, Libya

Cyrene was an ancient Greece colony in present-day Libya, the oldest and most important of the five Greek cities in the region. It gave eastern Libya the classical name Cyrenaica that it has retained to modern times....
around 14 BC, declining however the honorific name Marmaricus.

Discussion

Ask a question about 'Quirinius'

Start a new discussion about 'Quirinius'

Answer questions from other users

Full Discussion Forum

Encyclopedia

Publius Sulpicius Quirinius (Greek

Greek language

Year 21 was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar....
) was a Roman

Roman Empire

Syria (Roman province)

Syria was a Roman province, annexed in 64 BC by Pompey, as a consequence of his military presence after pursuing victory in the Third Mithridatic War....
is one of the chronological anchors

Chronology of Jesus

The Chronology of Jesus depicts the attempt to establish a historical chronology for the events of the life of Jesus depicted in the four canonical gospels ....
for the birth of Jesus

Jesus

Jesus of Nazareth , also known as Jesus Christ, is the central figure of Christianity and is revered by most Christian churches as the Son of God and the Incarnation ....
.

Life

Born in the neighborhood of Lanuvium

Lanuvium

Florus

Crete

Crete is the largest of the Greek islands and the List of islands in the Mediterranean largest island in the Mediterranean Sea at 8,336 km? ....
and Cyrene

Cyrene, Libya

Consul

Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Roman Empire. The title was also used in other city states, and revived in modern states, notably French Republic before the Napoleon I of Franceic counter-revolution....
, a sign that he enjoyed the favour of Augustus. Some years later, he led a campaign against the Homonadenses, a tribe based in the mountainous region of Galatia

Galatia

Ancient Galatia was an area in the highlands of central Anatolia in modern Turkey. Galatia, an ancient region of Asia Minor, was named for the immigrant Gauls from Thrace , who settled here and became its ruling caste in the 3rd century BC....
and Cilicia

Cilicia

In antiquity, Cilicia now known as ?ukurova, was a commonly used name of the south coastal region of the Anatolian peninsula, and a political entity in Roman times....
, around 5 - 3 BC, probably as legate of Galatia. He won by reducing their strongholds and starving out the defenders. For this victory, he was awarded a triumph

Roman triumph

A Roman triumph was a civil religion and religious rite of ancient Rome, held to publically celebrate the achievements of an army commander who had won great military successes, originally and traditionally, who had successfully completed a war....
.

By AD 1

Year 1 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar.The preceding year is 1 BC in the widely used Gregorian calendar or in its predecessor, the Julian calendar, neither of which has a "Year zero"....
, Quirinius was appointed rector

Rector

The word rector has a number of different meanings, but all of them indicate an academic, religious or political administrator.The word "rector" also appears in many modern languages, such as Albanian, Dutch language, Spanish language, Catalan language and Romanian language....
to Augustus' grandson Gaius Caesar

Gaius Caesar

Gaius Julius Caesar , most commonly known as Gaius Caesar or Caius Caesar, was the oldest son of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Julia the Elder.....
, until the latter died from wounds suffered on campaign. When Augustus' support shifted to his stepson Tiberius

Tiberius

Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus, born Tiberius Claudius Nero , was the second Roman Emperor, from the death of Augustus in AD 14 until his own death in 37....
, Quirinius entered the latter's camp of followers. Having been married to Claudia Appia, about whom little is known, he divorced her and around AD 3 married Aemilia Lepida

Aemilia Lepida

Aemilia Lepida is the name of Roman Empire women belonging to the gens Aemilius. All but the first Aemilia Lepida lived in the imperial era....
, daughter of Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, and sister of Manius Aemilius Lepidus

Manius Aemilius Lepidus

Manius Aemilius Lepidus was the son of Marcus Aemilius Lepidus the Younger and consul of Rome in 11. He defended his sister Aemilia Lepida at her trial in 20....
, who had originally been betrothed to Lucius Caesar

Lucius Caesar

Lucius Julius Caesar , most commonly known as Lucius Caesar, was the second son of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Julia the Elder. He was born with the name Lucius Vipsanius Agrippa, but when he was adopted by his maternal grandfather Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus, his name was changed to Lucius Julius Caesar....
. Within a few years they were divorced; in AD 20 he accused her of claiming that he was her son's father, and later of trying to poison him during their marriage; Tacitus claims that she was popular with the public, who regarded Quirinius as carrying on a prosecution out of spite.

After the banishment of the ethnarch Herod Archelaus

Herod Archelaus

Herod Archelaus was the ethnarch of Samaria, Judea, and Edom from 4 BC to 6 AD. He was the son of Herod the Great and Malthace, the brother of Herod Antipas, and the half-brother of Herod Philip I....
in 6, Iudaea Province

Iudaea Province

Iudaea was a Roman province that extended over the former region of the Hasmonean and Herodian kingdoms of Israel. It was named after the tetrarchy of Judea of which it was an expansion, the latter name deriving from the Kingdom of Judah of the 6th century BCE....
(the conglomeration of Samaria

Samaria

Samaria, or the Shomron is a term used for the mountainous region in northern Israel roughly corresponding to the northern part of the West Bank....
, Judea

Judea

Judea or Jud?a is the name given to the mountainous southern part of the historic Land of Israel , an area now divided between Israel and the West Bank ....
and Idumea) came under direct Roman administration with Coponius

Coponius

Coponius was the first governor of Iudaea province, about 6 CE.He was, like the procurators who succeeded him, of knightly rank, and "had the power of life and death"....
as prefect

Prefect

Prefect is a magisterial title of varying definition.A prefect's office, department, or area of control is called a prefecture, but in various post-Roman cases there is a prefect without a prefecture or vice versa....
; at the same time Quirinius was appointed Legate

Legatus

A legatus was a general in the Roman army, equivalent to a modern general officer. Being of Roman senate rank, his immediate superior was the dux, and he outranked all military tribunes....
of Syria, with instructions to assess Iudea Province for taxation purposes. One of his first duties was to carry out a census

Census of Quirinius

The Census of Quirinius refers to the enrollment of the Roman Provinces of Syria and Iudaea Province for tax purposes taken in AD 6/7 during the reign of the Roman Emperor Augustus, when Quirinius was appointed governor of Syria, after the banishment of Herod Archelaus and the imposition of direct Roman rule on what became Iudaea Province ....
as part of this. The assessment was greatly resented by the Jews, and open revolt was prevented only by the efforts of the high priest

Kohen Gadol

Kohen Gadol or Kohen ha-Gadol is the title of wiktionary:High Priest of early Israelite religion and of Classical Age Judaism from the rise of the Israelite nation until the destruction of the Second Temple of Jerusalem....
Joazar. As it was, the census did trigger the revolt of Judas the Galilean and the formation of the party of the Zealots, according to Josephus. The Gospel of Luke

Gospel of Luke

The Gospel of Luke is a Synoptic Gospels, and is the third and longest of the four Biblical canonical Gospels of the New Testament. The text narrates the life of Jesus of Nazareth....
links the birth

Nativity of Jesus

The Nativity of Jesus, or simply The Nativity, refers to the accounts of the Childbirth of Jesus in the Gospels and in various New Testament apocrypha texts that serve as key elements of Christian mythology....
of Jesus

Jesus

Jesus of Nazareth , also known as Jesus Christ, is the central figure of Christianity and is revered by most Christian churches as the Son of God and the Incarnation ....
to the census. However the Gospel of Matthew

Gospel of Matthew

The Gospel of Matthew is one of the four canonical gospels in the New Testament and is a synoptic gospel. It narrates an account of the New Testament view on Jesus' life and Ministry of Jesus of Jesus of Nazareth....
dates the birth to the reign of Herod the Great

Herod the Great

Herod , also known as Herod I or Herod the Great , was a Roman Empire client state of Israel. Herod is known for his colossal building projects in Jerusalem and other parts of the ancient world, including the rebuilding of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, sometimes referred to as Herod's Temple....
, who died in 4 BC, nearly ten years earlier. According to Raymond E. Brown

Raymond E. Brown

Raymond Edward Brown , was an United States Roman Catholic Church priest and Biblical scholar. He was regarded as a specialist concerning the hypothetical ?Johannine community?, which he speculated contributed to the authorship of the Gospel of John, and wrote influential studies on the birth and death of Jesus....
, most modern historians acknowledge that Luke's account is mistaken.

Quirinius served as governor of Syria with nominal authority over Iudaea until 12, when he returned to Rome as a close associate of Tiberius

Tiberius

Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus, born Tiberius Claudius Nero , was the second Roman Emperor, from the death of Augustus in AD 14 until his own death in 37....
. Nine years later he died and was given a public funeral.

Quirinius

Life

See also

External links