Eunus is a Myth? Part I

[sock puppet]

In your opinion, did it bump the trajectory of the Roman Empire, even to a slight degree?

It is part of a pattern of interactions between Romans and non-Romans within their sphere of influence, where charismatic resistance to slavery and Roman oppression managed to catch the Romans off guard and move them to double or triple down on their involvement in the governance of the places they had essentially conquered and claimed to "rule." Sicily had been taken from Greeks and Carthaginians, but the Romans up to that point had very minimal involvement in everything except economic exploitation of the "province." Events and people such as these were important in shaping the nature of Roman governance of the places they had taken from other rulers. They also tell us a lot about how such agents of resistance were viewed by those supportive of Roman rule.

Jesus fits this pattern to some extent. The Jewish rulers with whom he fell into conflict were often those who were cooperating with Roman rule. His demonstration and/or occupation of the Temple was a standard move for agents of resistance in his era. It is no mystery why he was executed for sedition, but the interesting thing is that his image was tweaked just enough to take the anti-Roman edge off of his movement.

Thank you for that enlightenment.