The collision of Rome, Israel, and the early Christians

Review of Rome and Jerusalem: The Clash of Ancient Civilizations by Martin Goodman

This is one of those dense history books that separates the true history buff (or academic) from the casual reader. Starting more or less from the reign of the Julio-Claudians – the first imperial dynasty of the Roman Empire after the fall of the Republic (27 BCE to 68 CE) – the book compares the cultures when the vassalage of "Judea" (as worked out by …