Romans in Early Jewish Literature

The Roman Empire loomed large in the imaginations of Jewish authors in antiquity. The Dead Sea sectarians expected the Romans to be the last in the long line of gentile oppressors in the region. They believed that the Roman conquest of the Greeks would usher in an eschatological age, during which the Romans would be subjected to God’s divine punishment. For the rabbis, living after the destruction of the Second Temple and the Bar Kokhba revolt, Rome became “the Wicked Kingdom” and was imagined as the place of the descendants of Esau, Israel’s eternal rival. The rabbis vividly recalled violence and persecution by Roman emperors and envisioned their subjection to divine punishment. At the same time, they acknowledged that individual Romans, even emperors, might be righteous or wise and have positive relations with Jewish leaders.