Marullus (Prefect of Judea)

Marullus was prefect of Rome in Judea from 37 to 41 AD .

Marullus was appointed Prefect of Judea by Emperor Caligula as successor to Marcellus . The first few years of his term in office were evidently quiet, Flavius ​​Josephus only reports one incident around the year 40. Non-Jewish residents had erected an altar in Jerusalem in honor of Caligula, which led to outrage on the part of the Jews, as the religious Jews considered this to be blasphemy . The altar was destroyed in the riot. Caligula was furious when he heard of the incident and ordered that a picture of Zeus bearing the features of Caligula be displayed in the Jerusalem temple as a punishment . Caligula conveyed this order to the governor of the Roman province of Syria , Publius Petronius . Marullus had to implement this measure and was faced with an increasingly escalating public anger. The protest of the Jewish population was so massive that Marullus found it difficult to keep things calm. In order to defuse the seemingly insoluble situation, Petronius even tried to undo Caligula's order. When he found out about this, he ordered Petronius to commit suicide and otherwise threatened him with retaliation. This did not happen, however, since Caligula died in AD 41.

Emperor Claudius succeeded Caligula. He deposed Marullus and made Judea a client kingdom under the rule of Herod Agrippa I as the Jewish king. After his death in AD 44, Judea became a Roman province again and received a procurator as governor.

See also : List of Roman governors in Judea

literature

• Rainer Riesner : The early days of the apostle Paul: studies on chronology, mission strategy . Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2004, ISBN 3-16-145828-1 .
• Peter Schäfer: History of the Jews in antiquity . Neukirchener Verlag, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1983, ISBN 3-460-32021-4 .