5.+1+CE+to+50+CE

=1 CE Birth of Jesus Christ=

The angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and told her she would have a son, Jesus, who would be the Son of God. Mary and her husband Joseph lived in Nazareth. The Roman emperor Ceasar Augustus ordered that a census should be taken. Mary and Joseph traveled to Bethlehem, which was about 65 miles from Nazareth. The trip would have taken them several days. When they got there, they went to an inn, but there was no room for them to stay there. So they ended up spending the night in a stable. That night the baby Jesus was born. They wrapped him in clothe and placed him in a manger.

Shepherds were keeping watch over their flock of sheep one night, when an angel of the Lord appeared to them. The angel said " I bring you good news of great joy, the Savior has been born." The angel told the shepherds they could find Jesus lying in a manger. Suddenly a group of angels appeared and said, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!" The shepherds then hurried to Bethlehem and found Jesus right where the angel told them he was. They then went and spread the great news of his birth.

Sometime later year, wise men, or magi, saw a bright star in the sky. The star was a sign that there was a birth of a new king. They then traveled to Judea, the region around Bethlehem, to worship Jesus, the new king. A man named Herod was the king of Judea. He called the wise men to a meeting and told them to find the new king so he could go and worship him, too. The wise men continued to follow the star, in the direction towards Bethlehem. They found Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus, in a stable directly under the star. They immediately knelt down and worshiped him. They brought with them gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. After, visiting Jesus, the wise men had a dream that warned them not to go back to King Herod, so they took a different route home.

The Romans did not care about the birth of Jesus. The Romans didn't think he was the Messiah. The Romans just thought Jesus was an ordinary man.

=Pontius Piolate=

= = In 26 CE, Pontius Pilate was appointed by Emperor Tiberius as regional governor of Judea. He was governor from 26-37 CE. It is thought that he must have came from a wealthy, powerful family since he was appointed governor. He is known as a cruel, corrupt man. He respected no one's feelings and executed people without a judicial sentence. He was a greedy man. A new aqueduct was needed to bring water into Jerusalem. He paid for the aqueduct with the Temple taxes.

In 29 CE, a man named Jesus came to Jerusalem from Galilee. Jesus was talking to many people about his belief in the Messiah. This upset the highest court and they turned Jesus over to the Roman authorities, because they thought he was trying to change the government. They put him on trial and later crucified him. Pontius Piolate did not actually want to crucify Jesus, but he was forced to by the Jewish crowd. During this time, the Romans did not separate politics and religion. Priests had religious and political roles. Chief priest families in Jerusalem were also political leaders in Judea. Pilate represented a Roman system that claimed politics is religion and religion is politics. Since there was no separation in politics and religion, Pilate did not actually see Jesus as a religious problem. Pilate put Jesus to death for the sake of Rome, because he was seen as a threat to the Roman government.

=John the Baptist =

John the Baptist was born in 5 CE in Judea. He was the son of Zachariah, a Temple priest. Zachariah's wife was Elizabeth. Elizabeth was the cousin of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Before John was born an angel came to Elizabeth and told her she would have a son and he would be named John. John the Baptist is best known as the man who prepared the way for Jesus of Nazareth. According to the Bible, John's role was to announce the coming of Jesus. John baptized many people, including Jesus in the Jordan River.

John publicly announced that he did not like the relationship between Herod and his own niece and his brother's wife, Herodias. John was imprisoned because of this. Herodias's daughter, Salome, had pleased the king by dancing at his birthday feast. Herod then promised she could have anything she wanted, even if it was half his kingdom. Herodias knew that John did not like her, so she convinced her daughter to ask for the head of John the Baptist on a dish. Herod then demanded the execution of John. He did not even have a trial of nay kind. His head was presented to Salome. Salome then passed it on to her mother. John's execution took place in 28 CE. He is believed to be buried at Samaria.

=Jesus is Crucified=

During the years when Jesus was growing up many people believed the end times had already come and the Messiah would be coming soon. This belief was strong in Galilee. Galilee is the region where Jesus lived in Palestine. The belief became even stronger when John the Baptist told the Messiah would soon come. In the Bible, it says the Messiah would be the descendant of King David. This caused common people to think of the Messiah as a military leader. If he was a military leader he would revolt against the Romans and drive them out of the country. This brought discontent and unrest to the country.

When Jesus began his ministry, he did not publicly call himself the Messiah. He knew this would be to dangerous and military action would probably be taken against him. Jesus' teachings and miraculous attracted large crowds. Soon people of Galilee thought he might be the Messiah. Jewish religious leaders saw the large crowds around Jesus and knew they were calling him the Messiah. They feared Jesus because of the people's amazement and they thought he was a serious threat to their authority. Authorities then arrested Jesus with hesitation because they were afraid of the crowd. They interrogated him and then eventually turned him over to the Romans and accused him of claiming to be a king. Under Roman law, claiming to be a king would more then likely lead to crucifixion. They saw it as a rebellion against the king.

The crucifixion couldn't happen until the Roman governor Pontius Pilate gave the final order. Pontius Pilate realized Jesus was innocent, but the Jewish leaders wanted Jesus crucified and Pontius Pilate wanted to please the leaders. Since they said Jesus claimed to be a king, they dressed him in a purple robe and put a crown of thorns on his head. They then made Jesus carry the cross on his back to the place of the crucifixion. Jesus was then lifted high on the cross and had nails pounded into his hands and feet. A sign was hung above his head on the cross, that said this is the King of the Jews. The crowd mocked Jesus. Jesus said he was thirsty and the guards dipped a sponge in vinegar and put it up to Jesus mouth. There was two other men crucified along with Jesus. Jesus died a few hours later. =Roman Invasion of Britain=

= = In 43 CE, Claudius became emperor of Rome. He wanted to make himself look good so the people liked him and he could keep is position as emperor. To do this he decided to expand the Roman Empire to the British Isles. The Romans were intrigued with Britain. Claudius sent 40,000 troops on boats to Richborough, in modern day Kent. They refused to get off the boats.

Vespasian and his army, marched through the lands of the Atrebates. There they met the Durotriges tribe in Dorset. They took over the hill fort of Hod Hill and built their military camp in one corner of it. After that they marched to Exeter where they took over twenty hill forts. The two other armies marched towards north Wales and north to York. By summer Claudius was able to land and became one of the twelve leaders.

The first capital of Rome was Colchester. The Romans realized that the Thames river was a important communication and transport highway. They made Londinium into a trade and administrative centre. Today Londinium is know as London. There were a lot of roads built to London for troop transportation and administrative communication. The roads made the trade expand quickly which made London the most important town. It made London become the new capital.