Tag: Armenian crisis

092

5.2.17.
During the Armenian crisis the citizens of Caesarea Philippi were seeking a successor for their city’s vacant throne;

Qumran caves
Qumran caves

Philip their prince had died in 33 AD. They chose Jesus who was living in exile, the ex-governor of Galilee, whom the citizens remembered as a devoted father of his country.

So Jesus was recalled from Tyre and appointed as the designated prince of Caesarea Philippi, referred to in the language of that time as the anointed one, the Messiah. In making this choice, the citizens of Caesarea Philippi linked it to the hope of political independence from Rome alongside the Parthian great power: Mark 8:27-30 par.

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091

5.2.16.
The Armenian crisis in 35 – 36 AD, a conflict between Rome

Jerusalem, Shrine of the Book
Jerusalem, Shrine of the Book

and the Parthians about the kingdom of Armenia, meant that Jesus was back in the race for political power in the Jewish territories.

The Armenian king Artaxias, linked to Rome by a friendship agreement, died in 35 AD. The Parthian king Artabanus III, anticipating the decline of Rome under the ageing emperor Tiberius, conquered the Armenian capital city Artaxata and established his eldest son Arsaces as king there.

The Armenian crisis in 35 – 36 AD led to a brief phase of weakness in Roman power in the east and fuelled hopes of independence from Rome in the Jewish provinces: Tacitus, Annals, 6.31ff; Ant. 18.4.4; Karl Christ, Das römische Kaiser­reich, Munich, 3rd ed. 1995, p. 205f.